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read your hymnals let's all stand together for this first song if you're able song number 423 joy to the world all together nice and strong on that first verse joy to the world the lord is come let earth receive her king let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature sing and heaven and heaven and nature sing joy to the world the savior reigns let men their songs employ wild fields and floods rocks hills and plains repeat the sounding joy repeat repeat the sounding joy no more let sins and sorrows grow nor thorns infest the ground to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found far as the curse is found far as far as the curse is found he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations his righteousness and wonders of his love and wonders of his love and wonders wonders of his love amen wonderful singing let's start off our service with a word of prayer lord god emily father we thank you for giving us this day that we can come to your house lord and hear the preaching of your word and i thank you that uh you brought us all here safely through this storm through the rain lord and i ask that you please uh keep us safe as we go on our way all throughout the day i ask that you please also bless the service lord please uh fill passing me here with your spirit as he preaches your word unto us and uh please bless the singing that it would be pleasing unto your ears and uh please give your spirit unto us in the congregation lord that we may take the things that pastor teaches us and apply them to our lives we pray these things in jesus name amen you may be seated please turn your song books to song number 424 just one page over oh come all ye faithful song number 424 all together nice and strong on that first verse oh come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant oh come ye oh come ye to bethlehem him come and behold him born the king of angels oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him cries the lord sing choirs of angels sing in exaltation all ye bright hosts of heaven above glory to god all glory in the highest oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him adore him cries the lord yay lord we greet thee born this happy morning jesus to thee be all glory appearing oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him lord all right great singing thank you so much for being here this evening this morning excuse me just a few announcements before we sing our next song which will be song number 425 if you want to get that ready in your song books no room in the end song number 425 our sunday morning service is at 10 30 sunday evening at 5 p.m and then we have our thursday night bible study at seven o'clock currently going through the book of second samuel so hope to see you during our midweek service and you see the the sowing teams and times there the list of expecting mothers and we have someone new to add to the list here if i can get a drum roll please brother eric it is brother matt and miss tanya applause for them congratulations so we'll make sure we get them on the uh miss tanya on the on the list here and uh please be in prayer for her you see the important reminders there at the bottom and of course the what's coming up here on saturday december 17th is the first works christmas program of course the orchestra is going to be playing and then the children are going to be singing and uh so we encourage you to invite your family friends anybody to just come and enjoy that and then we have like a dessert fellowship thereafter if you have any questions about that you can see brother elise's or you can see brother mori uh lemons for that they have all the information and i think tonight if i'm not mistaken there's going to be a practice tonight as well i'm sure the the christmas team has already gotten with the parents regarding that they're going to have a dress rehearsal and all that and then on sunday december 25th of course is christmas day we're going to have our christmas service the services will be back to back so we'll have sunday morning at 10 30 then we'll have a lunch we're going to have lechon so there's going to be a roasted pig there in the fellowship hall along with some other things and then after lunch we're gonna have our our evening service as well so i encourage you to stay for that new year's eve service is of course on the first and then barstow zoning resumes on monday january 2nd if you have any questions you want to be a part of that participate you can see brother elise's hernandez for more details and then something that's not on here brother elise's and a group of uh church members are going to be going to belize once again at the end of february going into march for about a week if you're interested in that you want to participate in that you need some info you can see brother elise's for that i know a lot of other churches are actually going to be joining us once again and it's like the california gold rush okay you know they people found out about all the all the souls that are receptive that are out in belize so everyone wants uh wants a piece of the pie amen but amen to that there's a lot of work to be done there and so the laborers are for you if you want to participate in that you can ask brother elise's for more details regarding him and then no food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee and no loitering in the foyer fellowship hall during the preaching service and of course quiet time is this afternoon from 3 p.m to 4 15 throughout the whole building and please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service let's go ahead and sing our next song 425 no room in the end song number 425 no room in the end all together nice and strong on that first verse no beautiful chamber no soft grain old bed no place but a manger nowhere for his head no praises of gladness no thought of their sin no glory but sadness no room in the end no room no room for jesus oh give him welcome free lest you should hear at heaven's gate there is no room for thee no sweet consecration no humiliation no place in the heart no thought of the savior no sorrow for sin no prayer for his favor no room in the end no room no room for jesus oh give him welcome free lest you should hear at heaven's gate there is no room for thee no one to receive him him welcome while here no balm to relieve him no staff but a spear no seeking his treasure no weeping for sin no doing his pleasure no room in the end no room no room for jesus oh give him welcome free lest you should hear at heaven's gate there is no room for thee amen wonderful singing at this time the ushers will come forward to collect the offering you can turn in your bibles to second thessalonians chapter number two so so good morning tonight we're in second thessalonians chapter number two and the bible reads now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our lord jesus christ and by our gathering together unto him that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of christ is at hand let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that's man of sin be revealed the son of perdition who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called god or that is worshipped so that he has god sitteth in the temple of god showing himself that he is god remember ye not remember ye not that when i was yet with you i told you these things and now you know that withholdeth that he might be revealed in this time for the mystery of iniquity doth already work only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked be revealed whom the lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming even him whose coming is after the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonders with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved for this cause god shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness but we are not bound to give thanks all way to god for you brethren beloved of the lord because god hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth where until he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our lord jesus christ therefore brethren stand fast and hold the traditions which he have been taught whether by word or our epistle now our lord jesus christ himself and god even our father which hath loved us and have given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work let's pray dear lord we thank you for everyone here lord and we thank you lord for salvation and sending your son jesus to be born and to die on the cross for our sins lord and we thank you for the church you've given us and for pastor i pray that you bless him right now and fill him with the spirit as he preaches your word lord i pray this all in jesus name amen amen all right we're in second thessalonians chapter number two and look down in your bibles at verse number 15 it says therefore brethren stand fast and hold the traditions which he have been taught listen to this whether by word or our epistle and the time of my sermon this morning is in defense of christmas in defense of christmas and of course right now we're in uh what we would call the christmas season it's a time when our nation and even people all around the world uh really take time to think upon and celebrate the birth of jesus christ right and obviously it's a big deal here in america where we obviously we've designated december 25th as the culmination of that celebration but the reality is this is that people start i mean they essentially celebrated throughout december and we even joke around and say that we started september and october and november started listening to christmas music and start getting our families prepared and decorating our houses to prepare for this celebration that we know as christmas and the reality is this is that it's actually a really wonderful holiday because of the fact that it upholds one of the most fundamental doctrines of our faith right it elevates it upholds it really emphasizes the fundamental doctrine of our faith which is the virgin birth of jesus christ and it's a doctrine that you have to believe in order to be saved it's a doctrine that we will defend until the second coming of christ because it is an essential doctrine and you know it essentially is a day that we think upon the day that the word of god was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth the bible says that without controversy great is the mystery god was manifest in the flesh he was justified in the spirit he was seen of angels preached unto the gentiles the bible says that he was received up into glory and so obviously we know that the the virgin birth of christ is an essential doctrine and thank god that we live in a nation that observes that right even if it's not something that is explicitly laid out in the bible as far as celebrating christmas you know thank god that our nation whether saved or unsaved has essentially designated you know one day but really an entire month to recognizing the birth of jesus christ now obviously not everyone does obviously there's people out there that want to say merry xmas or you know they say happy holidays and you know they they're essentially people who just don't want to recognize the birth of christ but think about this you know the birth of christ is so important not only to us as christians from a spiritual perspective but it's even necessary for the unsaved world in order to determine when events in history have taken place all right i mean everything is basically based upon you kind of you measure it or you know you kind of uh you can see when something took place based upon when jesus christ was born which is why we have bc and ad right bc referring to before christ ad referring to uh uh anno domini which basically means in the year of our lord and it's referring to the fact that when we look at something throughout history a historical event we always base it base when did it take place in respect to the birth of jesus christ and obviously the haters the god haters of this world the atheists of this world you know they hate that and they've sought to change it to bc e or ce before common era in the common era but it's such a stupid move because it's still based upon the year of our lord so they can try to remove christ from that and say well we're not going to recognize the birth of jesus christ we're still recognizing it because the marker still is the birth of jesus christ right and so thank god for that but one of the reasons i want to preach this is because of the fact that there is a subculture within christianity that has sought to demonize christmas okay and claim that it's pagan and that it's wicked and pretty much virtually every year since i've been a pastor i've gotten messages every year in the month of december and uh anytime i post something about christmas where people are just condemning me they're rebuking me and you know they're saying all manner of evil about christmas they're like i can't believe you're celebrating this you're a pastor you should know better don't you know what the bible says and just recently i got a message from someone that said you know i posted something about christmas and they said christmas is an abomination to jesus christ you know and those are some pretty harsh words there because an abomination is something that god hates right something that makes god sick and to think that you know people literally believe that jesus christ would be sickened over you know people celebrating his birth right or observing his birth honoring his birth it's it's preposterous it's ridiculous to think that and so but there is a subculture within christianity that literally throughout this month you know they're just kind of miserable you know they hate the fact that christians celebrate christmas they really hate this right here i mean this is like a taboo i mean this is very wicked it's an idol it's pagan and so anything and let me just say this is that obviously there are things that people do during christmas that are wicked no one's gonna argue that that's obviously true you know and people will say you know if you spell santa a certain way it's satan or whatever and i mean yeah we could play scrabble with all kinds of words and come up with all types of terms you know people said that you know if you you know mask for example you just remove one letter and you put a you know then it's the mark or whatever we add you know so it's like the mark of the beast we can play scrabble with any word right and i'm not for santa claus i think you know it's stupid to think that santa claus is real okay or to even promote that to your children and obviously even the ideologies that are attached to santa are wicked that you have to be good for a good kid throughout the year in order to receive presents and in fact i think there was a time when i believed in santa when i was a child and i remember thinking to myself okay this year i'm gonna just do my best to be like a good boy because i want to get these presents you know that's what i keep hearing and i don't know how young i was i was probably like four or five or something and i was like i'm gonna do my best january's fresh new start my new year's resolution i'm just gonna be good and i think like a couple days into it i i think i like you know said something bad to my sister i treated her wrongly or something and i knew i was like i blew it it's over with you know but you know the ideology that you have to be a good kid in order to receive a gift it's obviously even anti-biblical there's a lot of things that are attached to christmas that people will associate with christmas or they practice during christmas that are unbiblical you know uh drinking alcohol and and reveling and things doing things that are wicked and vile you know obviously those things we don't associate with those things because of the fact that we're christians and we don't do those things not just not on christmas but throughout the whole year you understand and so you know there's obviously things that are unbiblical that people do during christmas but to celebrate and exalt the birth the doctrine of the birth of jesus christ is i'm in my opinion a biblical thing to do okay and you know people will say this well show me a verse in the bible that says you should be celebrating christmas show me one verse in the bible and i always get this people always tell me this and i just respond with well show me a verse in the bible that tells me i can't you know you want me to show your verse in the bible that says we ought to celebrate christmas okay i don't have one but you don't have a verse that says that i can't and so checkmate and you know but we do have plenty examples in the bible of people who have celebrated or have talked about the birth of jesus christ and in fact christmas isn't the only time that we exalt the birth of jesus christ we pretty much do it every single week when we're out preaching the gospel you know when you're not preaching the gospel every single one of us have said you know that god the father sent his son jesus christ who was born of a virgin right and we talk about the fact that the word of god was made flesh but even then you know in luke chapter 2 you have the uh the angels and the shepherds celebrating the birth of jesus christ the incarnation of god when he came to this world we have them singing and in fact i believe what what the bible says in job chapter 38 when the bible states in job chapter 38 verse number six let me read it to you it says when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of god shouted for joy i think that i believe that's a prophecy of the birth of jesus christ where the morning stars referring to the heavenly angels is saying glory to god in the highest they sing together and all the sons of god referring to the shepherds who were in the field shouted for joy you know they're they're excited they're celebrating they are rejoicing over the fact that the messiah was made flesh and he was there to die for the sins of the whole world go to roman chapter 14 if you would now obviously we started off in second thessalonians chapter 2 to emphasize the fact that you know the bible does talk about commandments right there's the commandments of the lord but did you know that there are also commandments of men and they're not always bad and in fact another way of saying the commandments of men are the traditions of men you say well you know i only follow the laws of god i only follow the commandments of god well you know according to the bible you ought to obey the law of your mother the commandments of your father the commandments of your mother that's referring to to the traditions the commandments that your parents impose upon you yes god expects for you to obey those things because that is your biblical authority and so there's actually nothing wrong with having traditions that are based in biblical principles there's nothing wrong with having traditions or commandments that are based in biblical principles obviously as long as they don't violate clear scriptures of the word of god it's permissible according to the bible to impose those upon those whom we lead whether it be our family and even myself you know our church has a ton of traditions that you can't necessarily find in god's word but it's an administration it's an operation that we have here at our church and god has given us the liberty to practice those things and not condemn them and i'll get into that in just a little bit but look at roman chapter 14 it's a great scripture to kind of essentially sum up how we should view the celebration of you know days okay look at it says in verse number five in romans chapter 14 it says one man esteemeth one day above another now what does that mean it means you know he's basically taking two groups of people and he's saying one person will esteem one day above another in other words to one individual this particular day is really important okay it's really important he has sanctified it as being important to him it's it's a day that should be referenced and revered as being important and we can put this person as being someone who celebrates christmas right to that person the 25th is an important day where he you know observes and remembers the birth of christ and it goes on to say another esteem every day i like to another person is just like the 25th is like any other day okay thanksgivings like any other day you know 4th of july is like every other day easter sunday is like any other day it doesn't really matter so one guy is just like no but this day is really important and the other person is just like well to me they're all kind of the same doesn't really matter so what does god say to those two people well look what it goes on to say let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind so it doesn't say let the one who esteems one day above another get right with god okay and not look at one day as being more important than the other it's not what it says it says let him be fully persuaded in his mind that that day is esteemed above all days now why does god say that i'll tell you why because of the fact that god gives us the liberty when he doesn't clearly explain something in the bible he gives us the liberty to choose what we want to do see people have this view of god where he's just 100 austere all the time you just have to abide by these specific rules and there's no liberty in christ however what god how god actually is is that he gives you the essentials to obey the essential commandments to obey and then whatever is not clearly laid out in the bible you have the liberty to choose i don't believe god's that way yeah because you don't read the bible okay you you know think that god is just so strict and so austere and so mean that you just have to abide by these specific rules and that's it well yeah he expects us to keep his commandments but then things that are not clearly laid out in the bible things that you know are essentially a gray area in the bible he gives you the privilege and the liberty to choose if you want to do it or not if you esteem one day above another okay then be fully persuaded that that's what you can do if you say every day is alike okay be fully persuaded that that's what you want to do he goes on to say in verse 6 he that regardeth the day regardeth unto the lord it's a great way to explain what christmas and easter is right it's the day that we regard unto the lord and i would say that i would fall into that first category and more specifically for example sundays to me sunday is a day that i esteem above all other days it's a day that i regard above all other days now that's not something i'm going to impose upon other people and say that you should be in church all throughout the day because of the fact that you know the bible doesn't tell us that we should be at two services on sunday you say why do we have two services it's a biblical tradition it's just a tradition that we have created to help people get the word of god even more and in fact did you know there is no like thursday night service in the bible that is a tradition that we have created in order for people to get the word of god even more and it's based upon the scripture that states not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but so much the more as you see the day approaching so we have that scripture that tells us that we just need to be in church period right but we don't have an example of what time they met on sunday in general most fundamental baptist churches and i would say even just churches in general meet at 10 30 in the morning right 10 o'clock 10 30 in the morning but we don't have a biblical basis for that you say why did god why didn't god like clearly lay down on the book of acts because he wants that give us the liberty to choose when we can have our services because he doesn't care about that you know we have our services at five o'clock pm that's our sunday night service we don't have an example in the bible where they did something like that and in fact our services typically or the preaching typically runs about an hour if i really if i'm really on it and like an hour and 15 if if if if you know if sometimes i'm long-winded sometimes like an hour and a half but you know what my preaching the length of my preaching doesn't compare to the apostle paul when he preached at midnight all the way throughout the night and the dude fell off the loft there eudicus we'll talk about that tonight and he died you know what i mean and so you know we have that example do you guys want to meet at midnight or something well i don't but you know a good thing the bible doesn't tell us that that's what we're supposed to do he just gives us the choice to do so you know if we wanted to have just church services at midnight we could if we wanted to but it's not the most conducive it'll probably be you know the skeleton crew here and those who really love the lord well no i'm just kidding what i'm saying is that god gives us a lot of liberty to choose what we can do in a church as long as we abide by the biblical parameters that he's already set for us okay he says in verse six he that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the lord and he that regardeth not the day to the lord he doth not regard it he that eateth eateth to the lord for he giveth god thanks and you know what on christmas on easter on thanksgiving we eat unto the lord we feast as a way of remembering and thanking god for his provisions oh no on thanksgiving you guys should be fasting and praying well according to the bible he says we can just eat until we can we can also praise god by eating did you know that show me a verse in the bible that you can praise god and glorify god by eating uh whether therefore you eat or drink do all to the glory of god how about that so that means when you're eating today for lunch you're eating some you know in and out or whatever you can do that to the glory of god if you want to according to the bible aren't you glad that some people didn't write the bible because if they did they would put all types of rules and commandments that are just not biblical whereas god says you have the liberty you know when god put adam in the garden he just forbade him to eat of one tree but every other tree he could eat you know adam didn't need to go to god and say can i eat this one can i eat this one he's just like eat it whatever you want you could eat of every tree freely it's all yours just this particular tree you can't have okay it sounds like a lot of liberty to me so he says he that eateth eateth to the lord for he giveth god thanks and he that eateth not to the lord he eateth not listen to this and giveth god thanks so what is he saying he's saying both groups are fine if a person wants just doesn't want to observe christmas wants nothing to do with christmas doesn't want to have a christmas tree you know wants to be a scrooge or whatever you know and it's just kind of like whatever about it it's just like to me it's like every other day that person is right with god that person can still walk in the spirit god is pleased with that individual god can still bless that individual because there's nothing wrong with that but in like manner the person who does observe christmas and maybe goes a little overboard on observing christmas starting in september right god is pleased with that person too god is still blessing that person here's the difference is that often it's the person who doesn't celebrate christmas who's constantly condemning the person who does you know i don't really know a whole lot of people who celebrate christmas who are constantly condemning those who don't celebrate christmas i don't know anybody like that i don't know any christian like that was just like you're wicked because you don't observe christmas it's most more often than not it's the other ones the ones who don't celebrate christmas who are constantly condemning constantly rebuking constantly just railing against those who have chosen to uphold uh christmas day the 25th as a day where they commemorate the birth of jesus christ and it's wrong it's wrong to do that okay now christmas is a tradition we can't find them in the bible as far as like a celebration is concerned a holiday it is a tradition but as we read you know it's a good tradition and you know the bible god gives us the liberty to choose traditions based upon biblical principles that we could observe if we want now let me give you an example here go with me if you would to mark chapter seven mark chapter seven and i've already mentioned some of this already but let me just talk about this a little more is the fact that god hasn't really clear clearly laid out how a church service should be run like there's no example in the in the book of acts and there's plenty of examples of churches in the book of acts but there's like no examples in the book of acts of how a church service should be run what we should do what is in order of service and let me just say this i guarantee you in the book of acts or during that time they didn't run their church services the way we do today like today you know we have song prayer song announcements song offering scripture reading and then preaching and then soul winning that's how we order our services based upon baptist tradition but we don't see that tradition we don't see that commandment in the bible it's because god has given us that liberty and you know what other churches may do something different and they can still be right with god and let me explain to you why the bible says that there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit says there are differences of administrations but the same lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same god which worketh all and all the bible says it says there's different gifts there are different administrations there are different operations but get this it's the same god who's working in each and one of those churches so people can do things differently in church you know and and still get the same outcome still please god still glorify god because god has essentially designated people to do such you know suits aren't in the bible but you know what in american tradition this is what is traditional to wear you're not you if someone says well if you don't wear a suit you're not right with god not true you know you can come dressed in your pajamas if you want it's probably not the most appropriate thing to do but we can't say it's sinful to do that you know and you're not super spiritual if you wear a suit but traditionally that's what we do okay nothing wrong with that you know i don't see pianos in the bible either as far as in the book of acts in the church service but you know what we like to use it because it just uh it accentuates the music that we're singing the hymns that we're singing and god is fine with that we're not you know homage people here where it's just like you can't use any instruments the only instrument you have is your voice that's the only one you should be using folks that's hyper spiritual it's stupid okay and there's plenty examples throughout the bible where you see people instituting a tradition that god didn't condemn for example when jacob wrestled with the angel the angel touched the hollow of his thigh and he essentially what did he do he halted upon his leg right and the bible tells us that the children of israel eat not at the sinew which shrank which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day because he touched the hollow of jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank that was a tradition that they held based upon this battle that took place between jacob and the angel and god didn't say you guys are wicked for doing that i didn't tell you to do that what are you doing it was just a tradition that they had that god was fine with now look at mark chapter seven because here's the thing obviously we've seen that some traditions are fine to have especially if they're based in biblical principles but you know there are traditions that are not biblical to have right and how do we know which ones are the wrong ones look at verse number seven of mark chapter seven it says how be it in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men for laying aside the commandment of god ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things you do and he said unto them full well you reject the commandment of god that you may keep your own tradition so this is how you can tell if a tradition that a man is instituted is right or wrong okay one are we commanding anyone to observe christmas like are we saying hey 25th you better be saying merry christmas you better you better get yourself a christmas tree and you know no one's doing that okay are we claiming that if you don't celebrate it you're not right with god are we teaching for doctrines the commandments of men so this is when a tradition becomes wrong is when we begin to teach it as though you know it's something that the bible teaches to do okay and let me give you a really silly example in the old ifb there's this tradition to just be clean-shaven let me know what i'm talking about okay you could not have beards at all this is super wicked what i got going on here let's see there's someone who has to have it longer than i do who has who has a really long beard right now chris all right you got something going on there i think is okay brother oh yeah brother you'd be an abomination marcos i think he probably has the longest one right now well in the old ifb is just like you could not have it was like looked down upon greatly it was almost like they would almost they want to say it's sinful you know what i mean but they know they couldn't but they would they wanted to go they almost wish it was in the bible and it's so ridiculous because of the fact that jesus had a beard every man in the bible that can grow one had a beard okay and so but that was a tradition that they kept it was based upon you know essentially the the wrong association with beards and commies and hippies okay but they would i mean they were i remember being in bible college and you could even have like a five o'clock shadow and you know i i grew a beard and i can grow pretty long and it would grow pretty fast and so it was it was very annoying to like have to shave every day so that you know keep the five o'clock shadow off and i remember being in a chapel service and this guest preacher came and i didn't get a chance to shave it was like a it was a slight shadow of things to come okay it wasn't even clear it's really obscure it's like through you're looking through a glass darkly it's like i think that's a beard it might you know what i mean it could be dirt or something you know it's just like maybe the the man didn't take a shower or something you know you can it wasn't necessarily a beard and i went to shake his hand to thank him for the sermon he pulled me in he just looked at my face he's like he's basically saying like oh you're in shape huh and i'm just like is it really that big of a deal that's obviously an unbiblical tradition okay and so you know there's a lot of traditions that people have that are just that they try to impose upon people as though it's god's word and it's not god's word you know some there's baptists out there that will condemn a church like ours for not having bus ministry but there's nothing wrong with bus ministry in a sense of you know the the thought behind it is good that you're reaching people you're using it as a tool of soul winning you know a lot of churches don't necessarily do that they just want to they use uh bus ministry as a way to boost the numbers in their church let me just be real honest with you okay it's it's the kind of you know when you when you have a church that runs you know if they're running 300 but they have a bus ministry more often than not like the vast majority of the members are bus kids that they're busing in so they're kind of using it as a way to kind of inflate the numbers a little bit and they're not they don't really care for their souls and i'm not saying every church is like that because a lot of churches do preach the gospel to bus kids and do try to get them saved but you know there's some baptist churches that would look at a church like ours like oh you're not a real baptist church you don't have a bus ministry but see bus ministry is is a tradition nothing wrong with it but when you start thinking saying that you're not a real church because you don't have a bus ministry you're not a real baptist church if you don't have a bus ministry then obviously that's wrong okay and so we're not commanding anybody to observe christmas we're not telling them they can't be right with god if they don't now ask yourself this does celebrating christmas lay aside the commandment of god because that would be a big deal right like if our celebration if us celebrating christmas would cause us it's causing us to like violate clear scriptures then it would be wrong but the question we got to ask ourselves is it doing that is it really laying aside any commandment in the bible and those who are against christmas would say yeah yeah you guys are yeah for sure and the here's some of the arguments that they would give okay the origin argument okay christmas has pagan roots and therefore we should not celebrate it okay now go to act chapter 17 if you would act chapter 17 you see we celebrate we remember we elevate the birth of jesus christ on a specific day which is the 25th right and you know the people who are anti-christmas would point to not the bible they'll point to like a youtube video of some historian so-called saying well the 25th was the day where the pagan romans celebrated sardinalia okay that was the sardinalia festival and here's the thing is that when you actually look up sardinalia and what they did in sardinalia when it took place there's there's various answers okay no one really knows exactly when because in on one article i've read that they celebrated from the 17th to the 23rd but then when you talk about well what about christmas they're like oh yeah they did it on the 25th so it's just like when you're when you only isolate the study of sardinalia you'll see that they celebrated from the 17th to the 23rd but if you ever add you know it's christmas sardinalia they're like oh yeah because they did it on the 25th so at the end of the day people don't really know when they'll celebrate okay now here's the thing though it's such a silly argument to say well you know you're celebrating the birth of jesus christ on the 25th and he just no one knows he wasn't born on the 25th and no one knows when he was born so it's wrong to celebrate it on the 25th but there is a one in 365 chance that he was born on the 25th though so just as much as we don't know if he was born on the 25th neither do you no one really knows right but not only that you know there's a bunch of mexicans myself included growing up we didn't celebrate christmas on the 25th you know when we did it on the 24th so what now i grew up celebrating christmas on the 24th and i felt bad for all my white friends that had to open up their presents on christmas day and i'm like i get to open it on on christmas eve in the evening we would wear suits and you know obviously our christmases were a little different because you know um i i do this for my kids now where they don't know what we're gonna get them but my mom would just take me to like the store and say you can pick two toys you wrap them up and then just act surprised when you open them up sounds good power ranger ninja turtle there we go you know and then on christmas eve wow you know just act surprised or whatever and they're not all about that you know what i mean they're anything my mom wasn't about that you know uh you know waking up in the morning with the coffee and all that you know i enjoy that now but you know back in back in those days it wasn't like that but you know a lot of a lot of hispanics celebrate christmas on the 24th so what now you know are they are they pagan for doing that you know does that fall in line with the roman Saturnalia tradition okay you got to ask yourself these things but think about this let's pretend okay for a second that christmas is it definitely has pagan roots okay because we don't really know if it does or not you can pull up those articles and say that but you don't really you weren't there so you don't really know what they really did you don't know if that's really true or not okay because there's different resources that say different things but for the sake of argument let's just say that yes christians adopted pagan practices they took Saturnalia and they christianized it to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on the 25th like the 25th was something that they did on Saturnalia and they celebrated that they were involved in debauchery you know people often said oh yeah they went from house to house singing naked so you guys are christmas caroling and stuff like that's wait that's pagan that's why i didn't participate in the christmas caroling last night because that's pagan so let's just pretend that yeah christmas has pagan roots okay let's say it was adopted by the pagan romans of the celebration of Saturnalia listen to this it would still be permissible to celebrate let me explain to you why okay the only time god would forbid the celebrating uh celebrating it would be if it retained if our celebration retained the beliefs customs and pagan practices of Saturnalia that's the only time god would say okay not permissible so the fact that it has pagan origins doesn't have any bearing on whether we can celebrate it or not what does is if you retained like if on the 25th you're like worshiping Saturnalia you're worshiping Saturn you're christmas caroling naked you're you're doing all if you retain those practices those customs and those beliefs okay at that point it becomes sinful it's wrong you shouldn't do it at that point it is an abomination but to take the 25th and designated to recognize the birth of Jesus Christ God actually has no problem with that because the origins does not matter you say how can you say it doesn't matter okay you know if you're doing it on the 25th you're worshiping Saturn well then you have an unbiblical definition of what worship means because if we're worshiping the god of heaven we're worshiping Jesus Christ and you're saying yeah but that's actually Saturn that you're worshiping no it's not not according to the bible if i say i worship the lord Jesus Christ that's not code for Saturn if i say i worship Saturn and uh you know Aries and all these false gods okay at that point i'm worshiping those false gods but think about this you know there's plenty examples in the bible where God and his people have taken something that belongs to pagans and christianize it i mean pretty much this entire world has been operating like that let me give you an example okay Canaan land is probably one of the biggest examples so what is Canaan land it's where the Canaanites dwell you know the the sodomites those who partook in bestiality they sacrifice children they're involved in incest they're involved in all types of wicked things and what did God do he took his people and said take that land the land where they committed all those abominations and remove the people and you guys live there and we'll call it Israel and he even said i want you to take it and take the houses that you did not build where they probably committed those wicked acts i want you to take the wells that they that you did not dig the vineyards that you did not plant pretty much everything will belong to you just got to get rid of all these people and don't practice their customs what customs is he referring to worshiping their false gods committing sodomy committing bestiality and committing incest and all of those abominable acts he says don't do those things but take the land oh those Israelites are pagan though oh you guys are living in you know this is actually Canaanite you know when you when you say it's Israel it's actually uh the land of the Canaanites and you're pagan you know oh this house was used to worship a false god well not anymore not anymore and in fact folks you know i don't i think this was like a school before this building right like what kind of school was it do you guys remember really at least this high school man this is what it was a continuation school oh this is this was a government-funded continuation school you guys are run by the government for using this building no because we transformed it into a church so you people can't look at us and say oh no you guys are continuing you guys are continuation christians because you're using a building that was used by a continuation school therefore you guys are being run by the government it's not it's such a stupid argument okay think about this you know David dedicated the silver and gold that he took from pagan nations and dedicated it unto the lord so the silver and gold that were used to worship false gods god's like take it take it and he took it and he's like this is for the lord i mean plenty of times in the book of Joshua God told him hey don't take up the thing dedicated unto the lord all the silver brass and gold that these wicked pagans would use to worship the false gods take it and put it in the treasury he said think about that why because the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just that's why and everything that we use in this world has you know the physical money you've touched has probably been in the hands of some wicked person the money you threw into the offering plate that has been dedicated to the treasury of the lord probably was handled by some wicked pagans you know reprobate or something did you know that but you know now it's completely transformed into something that is used for the service of god so the fact that it has pagan origins which i don't believe it does but let's just pretend it does the fact that it has pagan origins has no bearing on whether we can celebrate it or not the only time it would have bearing is that if we retain that's why we don't celebrate halloween because it has pagan origins but even aside from that it retains the practices of those wicked reprobates he said no it doesn't they just dress up oh you know like divination necromancy you know all this filth and perversion which they would do back then people still do it today so we're not going to dress up like goblins and ghouls and and exalt death and do all those things because that's essentially what they did back then so therefore we want nothing to do with it okay and to say yeah but you shouldn't do it on the 25th because of the 25th that's such a stupid argument because you know what what if someone's birthday falls on the 25th can they not celebrate their birthday well if they're celebrating their birthday they're worshiping saturn i mean you see how dumb that really you know i knew someone who was born on october 31st are they wicked for being born on that day think about it friends it's such a stupid argument to think that oh this day was designated to worship a false god therefore we can never recognize that day as being something that we can dedicate unto lord ridiculous it's nonsensical and it's actually superstitious to do that let me give you an example of someone who actually took a an altar of false god and designated it as something for god himself in order to win people over look at act chapter 17 verse 22 then paul stood in the midst of mars hill and said you men of athens i perceive that in all things you are too superstitious for as i passed by and beheld your devotions i found an altar with this inscription to the unknown god whom therefore you ignorantly worship him declare i unto you so these these athenians had an altar and the inscription read to the unknown god to them it was like some false god but the apostle paul took it and said actually the unknown god literally would be the god of all the earth the god of heaven and earth this is the man this is the god that i'm going to declare unto you so he used something pagan in order to open the door to preach the gospel unto them now look did he see a whole lot of fruit no but there's some people that believed and here's the thing is that christmas isn't necessarily the best tool to reach a whole lot of people as far as the gospel is concerned but it's fun for us to do and we do reach some people you know it's not like well christmas is our greatest evangelistic tool that we have so we don't sow in throughout the whole year because we just depend everything on christmas no it's just another thing that we do at the end of the year and why not emphasize doctrine during this time and utilize it to worship the lord but here we see the apostle paul using something pagan in order to teach something biblical why because the bible says we're to use this world as not abusing it we live in this world and in fact think about this folks you know god has to use you and you weren't born a christian you weren't born saved your vessel is the flesh your vessel has committed sins your vessel is you know is wicked right it's not going to inherit the kingdom of god but you know what god's christianizing you though to use you to accomplish his work now let me give you another reason why this argument of celebrating the birth of christ on the 25th is pagan why that argument is so hypocritical okay let me just show you why this is so stupid it's so hypocritical it's nonsensical and it's most of the time proposed by people who desire to be teachers of the law understanding neither what they say nowhere of they affirm okay check this out pretty much everyone in this building anybody in this world especially in the united states essentially schedules things based upon our weekly and monthly calendar right like you base what you're doing tomorrow based upon what day of the week it is like tomorrow's monday and on monday i start work because it's monday right friday is my day off because it's friday like you literally base everything off of the days of the week and the months of the year now you obviously know where i'm going with this the days of the week were named after false gods sunday is for the sun god monday is the moon god and then the other ones are from norse false gods let me read it to you tuesday was named for the germanic god of war tu wednesday was named for woden the supreme creator among the norse gods thursday was named for thor the norse god of thunder friday was named for uh named for frigate the norse goddess of marital love and the hearth and of course saturday was the only one who's not a norse god it's a roman god named after saturn okay so there you go so you're paying oh you're celebrating christmas on the 25th i'm you're doing something on the 25th too though if i go to you on the 25th and i say what day is it you're gonna say it's sunday i'm gonna say you're wicked you're a pagan for for calling it that because you're worshiping the sun god oh how the turn have tables but not only that how about you know the months of the year are named after at least six of them are named after false gods two of them one of them you know july is julia caesar august is caesar augustus and then the other ones are just you know september referring to seven october is eight supposed to be the eighth month of the year november is nine the ninth month and december is 10 and obviously doesn't follow that way uh chronologically in our calendar but that's what it means but six of those months are false gods january is named after janus the god of doors and gates so in january you better not be going through any doors or any gates because then you could be accused of worshiping a false god if you step outside your house you better quarantine all the month of january because if you step through any door automatically you're worshiping a false god if i tell you what month are we in and you say january you're wicked you're pagan because you you're essentially ascribing to and giving credence to the fact that this month is january the month of the god janus you're like no i just live in i mean this is what i do this is just january this is how we always said it i don't describe any to any false god exactly just as we on the 25th don't ascribe to saturnalia we don't worship a false god we're worshiping jesus christ february named after feburalia a time period when sacrifices were made to atone for sins oh super wicked if you do anything in february march named after mars the god of war april latin for to open may named after maya the goddess of growth of growth of plants you know if you do anything in in in may not only are you pagan you're vegan too june junius latin for goddess of juno okay so you see how ridiculous and stupid that is no no no but you know pagans designated the 25th hey pagans designated pretty much our entire calendar pagans have designated the weeks of the weeks of the days of the week the months of the year so you're pretty much screwed no matter what nothing you can do about it okay and look at the end of the day all this is superstition oh i can't observe on this day because this day it's been now if there's a day that we see in the bible that should be observed or should be designated or we see a pattern of observance then yeah there's nothing wrong with it that's why you know the christians gather together on the first day of the week which i'm sorry you know that's called sunday today you know and if it were up to me i'd probably name it s-o-n day because it's the day we observe the son jesus christ but who cares what it's named okay but it's a superstitious belief and look this has happened throughout the ages and in fact in the 1700s listen to this in the 1700s if you're born on a sunday you're considered a child of the devil because in the 1700s they believed that if you're born the day that you were born is the day that you were conceived so that's what they believe so it's like oh you're born on the sunday means you can see them on sunday you're a child of the devil and you know benjamin franklin was born on sunday now he might have been a child of the devil you know it's a possibility i don't know but if you're born on that day you're considered a child of the devil no scriptural basis just all superstition go to first corinthians chapter 10 if you would first corinthians chapter 10. first corinthians chapter number 10 and you know christians shouldn't be superstitious you know we're not enslaved by the superstitions of this world oh a black cat crossed my path or whatever i can't i can't go under that ladder i can't open up an umbrella indoors you know i mean what else is there and by the way you know those are like really nonsensical the mexican ones are even worse though they're like doubly worse i mean i can spend an entire sermon talking about all the superstitious beliefs of mexicans that even some christians still believe to this day believe it or not why are you laughing you lisa the only one that laughs is the mexican no i'm just kidding but we're not supposed to be superstitious there's nothing wrong with the days of the week there's nothing wrong with the months of the year and you know if that's what it's named and that's what it's named who cares okay we live in a a sin ridden world you know sin has plagued this world and you know we live in a country in a state in a nation in a world that is just wracked by sin this is what we're dealt with okay it's not a christian world but look at verse 25 let's look at what the bible says about eating things sacrifice them to idols so a meat that's designated for idol worship look what the bible says in verse 25 whatsoever sold in the shambles shambles is like a meat market that eat asking no questions for consistency so you know you go to this place and it you know it seems to be buddhist and they're selling food and you're like that looks good i'm not gonna ask where it came from though because apparently according to the bible it's actually permissible to eat as long as they don't say where it's from okay why look at verse 26 for the earth is the lord's and the fullness thereof if any of them that believe not bid you to a feast and you be disposed to go whatsoever set before you eat asking no question for conscience sake so it's like they if they put a you know some some roman puts a plate of food before you just eat it don't even ask anything don't say hey was this this is not the saturn is it you didn't use this this isn't leftovers from saturn now is it you know now it says don't don't ask questions for conscience sake and automatically you might think oh like my conscience because if i know that it's offered unto sacrifice uh offered unto devils then now i'm sinning by doing this no actually not that's not what the bible says verse 28 but if any man saying to you this is offered and sacrificed unto idols eat not for his sake that showed it and for conscience sake for the earth is lord and the fullness thereof conscience i say not thine own but of the other so it's like the only reason you shouldn't eat it if someone tells you it's offered unto idols it's not for your own conscience it's for theirs because you don't want to be a stumbling block to them thinking that you're some compromiser wow look how christians behave type of a thing right but look what it says conscience i say not that i know but of the other for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience what does that mean it means we have the liberty to eat things sacrificed into idols as long as no one tells us it's sacrificed into idols because me commend commendeth us not unto god the bible says so if we eat we're not the better or the worse when we eat food it's just like oh man you're eating oh you're eating in and out oh you're wicked don't you know you know everything that goes into that no i'm not wicked you know and yeah even if you eat del taco you're not wicked taco bell del taco and all that stuff you know you can still be a good believe it or not you can still be a really good christian in spite of that okay you know i have different preferences i have my opinions about that but you know i can't impose that upon you because it's my tradition and it's wicked to me just kidding i'm just kidding but it's saying my liberty so what is it saying we have the liberty to do so so in like manner we have the liberty to worship christ on the 25th if we want to because that's what we have the liberty to do no the bible restricts it no where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty the bible says and why why is my liberty judged you know for another man's conscience he says in verse 30 four five i grace be a partaker why am i evil spoken of for that uh for that for which i give thanks whether therefore you eat or drink whatever you do do it all to the glory of god so again he says why am i evil spoke why are people speaking evil of me and we can insert christmas in here too the difference is this passage of scripture is teaching us and we'll see i mean you can read on yourself in first christians chapter eight that if me makes your brother to offend we should not eat it right and you say well then you shouldn't celebrate christmas but here's the difference is that we have romans 14 to balance that thought out so in other words if someone argues with you that christmas is bad according to romans chapter 14 verse number one that's called a doubtful disputation and we shouldn't be involved in doubtful disputations because according to the bible we can regard any day unto the lord that we want okay but why are we evil spoken of for celebrating christmas if we have the liberty to do so and in fact anything that we do we can do all to the glory of god that's what the bible says now go to jeremiah chapter 10 let's just get this over with jeremiah chapter 10 and to be honest you know most people who message me or talk i guarantee you i i'm i'm about 90 sure that they've never actually read the bible cover to cover and i i can almost guarantee you that if you gave them a bible and said can you find jeremiah chapter 10 they don't they're they would be in the new testament for a while looking for it i guarantee the majority of people who are making these claims can't even find these these passages in the word of god they can find the youtube video where they heard it in their history you know they can copy and paste and send it to you and say go to this minute marker but they can't give you the minute markers of the bible you know why because they're not getting their convictions or preferences from god's word they're getting it from something outside of the bible now let's just deal with this real quick because it's fun to do and it's it's just ridiculous that people say because this right every year we do this i always get messages for this always can't believe you put in the christmas tree it's so pagan it's but let me ask you who who let's see a raise of hands real quick since we placed this christmas tree who has prostrated themselves before this christmas tree and has praised Saturnalia Saturn or any other god for you know forget Saturn about any other god how many of you've actually just prostrated i'm not saying you fell before the tree like you accidentally i'm talking about you literally came and you began to worship this thing nobody yeah but if you have it it's considered worship according to who the youtube video or the bible right you know the guy on the youtube video who you don't even see his face you just hear his voice because he doesn't want you to see that he lives in his mother's basement it's telling you that having the christmas tree in the house of god is worshiping god but they can't point a verse in the bible to prove that because it's not and in fact if you have any type of plants in your house then according according to their standard you know you're committing idolatry too look this is the portion of scripture they use jeremiah chapter 10 verse 1 hear ye the word of the lord which the lord speaketh unto you oh house of israel thus say the lord learn not the way of the heathen and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven for the heathen are dismayed at them for the customs of the people are vain for one cut at the tree out of the forest uh-oh the work of the man's hand the work of the hands of the work man with the axe they deck it with silver with gold i see a little bit of silver there i see a little bit of gold they fasten it with nails and with hammers that it moved not huh they are upright as the palm tree but hold on a second but speak not now how many of you think this tree can actually talk how many of you have a christmas tree at your house and you you're thinking yourself this might open its mouth at one time or another nobody does the reason they say is they speak not it's because it's referring to a carved image you know what people make idols out of wood they take a tree out of the forest they bring it to their temple and they carve an image day gone you know uh astaroth they create they carve an image out of it which is actually something that is specifically condemned in the bible to carve any image out of wood of anything that's in heaven or in earth he says they are upright as the palm tree but speak not they must needs be born because they cannot go be not afraid of them for they cannot do evil neither also is it in them to do good for as much as there is none like unto thee oh lord thou are great and thy name is great in might who would not fear the king of nations for to thee doth it appertain for as much as among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like unto thee but they are altogether brutish and foolish the stock is a doctrine of vanities so why do they choose this passage to claim that this is pagan oh because this is deck like deck the halls which is a christmas song but deck means essentially to completely cover right with gold this is not referring to little balls this is a ball that you hang like we're not decking the tree with christmas ornaments we're hanging christmas ornaments on the tree so hanging and decking are two different things okay and the last time i checked no one's carved an image out of that but not only that you know the bible talks about in isaiah chapter 60 people bringing fur trees which this is actually a fir tree typically we don't get a fir tree what is it called a noble fur this is a noble fur which is for future reference everybody this is these are trees that are actually very good for hanging ornaments on the fir trees i forgot what the other ones are called they're more bushy like it's all my costco we got this one at home depot apparently home we got this one at home depot apparently home depot is just churning out idols every year but the bible says how people take fir trees and they put them into the house of god to beautify them so can you explain that scripture to me isaiah chapter 60 and verse 13 talks about people bringing in the fir trees which is this into the house of god to beautify it doesn't sound like you know worshiping a false god not only that but check this out in the bible they also have examples of fir trees and pine trees being cut out being taken cut out carved fastened with nails to be used as doors in the house of god so is that wicked is that pagan to do if you have a wooden door at your house well that's pagan because it's carved you would say no because it's not an idol exactly it's not an idol it's a door that you use and you know what this isn't an idol either because we don't believe it can talk we don't believe it can move we don't we don't ascribe any form of deity to the street my friends now here's my last point okay and let me just explain to you why i do think it's important to celebrate christmas whether you choose to or not to choose to celebrate it or not i'm going to give you a reason why i believe it is important for us to celebrate christmas okay and if you choose not to that's on that's up to you the reason i believe it is important to do so is number one because of the fact that i think it's important to emphasize and exalt doctrine the virgin birth of christ right but also because of the fact that if christians relinquish their liberty to celebrate christmas people are going to choose an alternative as there's all types of bad alternatives out there okay now let me name one that came about a long time ago um and i got this off the internet off of many sites many articles okay so this is validated but in the 17th century there was a uh an observance by jews called niddle knocked how many have ever heard of that niddle knocked okay and it's actually a name given to christmas eve by jewish scholars in the 17th century but it was actually observed as early as the 16th century by rabbis and what they would do is that basically it was their alternative to celebrating christmas because they believe christmas was imposed in order to prove that judaism is no longer valid that's what the jews believe okay and i don't celebrate that to prove that that judaism is no longer valid but i'm all good with them believing that though okay and what they would do during this christmas eve during christmas eve is because they demonized it is that they would abstain from reading the torah which the torah is the first five books of the bible okay they would abstain from reading it and they would do all these type of superstitious practices during that time but let me let me read this to you medieval apostates and it names this person johan um wrote that the common belief among jews at the time was that on christmas eve jesus would wander all the toilets of the world as a punishment for spreading false teachings they wrote that jews feared that if jesus heard them reading the torah he would get a respite from his suffering so they refrained from it the apostates also wrote about jews eating a lot of garlic on christmas eve to ward off the demon jesus as well as jewish children being hesitant to use the latrine on christmas eve from the fear of jesus reaching out and pulling them in the observance of nidilnag was popularized by the Baal Shem Tov in the 18th century now here's the probably the most wicked part is that you know they have these superstitious belief that if they read the torah that somehow that would help jesus because they believe that jesus is currently in hell right now burning in his own excrement for teaching uh uh blasphemies and black magic and all this nonsense or whatever and and so they believe that so what they would do instead of reading the torah they would read a book called the Toledad Yeshu which is translated as the generations of jesus and the Toledad Yeshu is basically portrays jesus as an illegitimate child who practiced sorcery taught a heretical judaism seduced women and died a shameful death it sounds like basically the talmud right interestingly the author also shows a paradoxical respect for jesus as joseph dan notes in this particular book it says the narrative in all versions treat jesus as an exceptional person who from his youth demonstrated unusual wit and wisdom but disrespect towards his elders and the sages of his age and so they they had this alternative and then you know i read some modern articles because this is a little older but i read some modern articles by jews themselves jews wrote this it said validated that nidilnag was actually a legitimate thing and they they would eat garlic and they say they would eat garlic to you know ward off demon you know who because they don't want to say who it was and then they said you know we would also read the Toledad Yeshu which just is another narrative of jesus but it doesn't really they don't really tell you the contents of that book and they say you know christmas is really wicked it's really bad you know jews are constantly being persecuted during times of christmas and times past and therefore we shouldn't celebrate it because it's evil it's wicked let me just tell you this the reason why christmas has been demonized by jews is because they have they hate everything having to do with jesus they hate his birth and they also hate his death and his resurrection okay now luckily you know because jews make up about two percent of the population whatever you know this isn't necessarily popular i'm just saying is that in the 17th century this was an alternative okay to christmas and i think that we should celebrate christmas because if not people are going to start practicing or believing weird stuff i think it's just a good opportunity to emphasize what the bible actually teaches regarding the birth of jesus christ and why would christians fight other christians condemn other christians for propagating the birth of jesus christ oh because you guys sing carols and stuff no one sung a carol yesterday naked it's too cold go to first corinthian six and we're done now look if you after this sermon you say well i still think it's pagan i still think it's wicked okay but don't say you can prove it from the bible though just say it's your preference say that's your belief but don't say you base it off of the bible because the bible does not teach that at all okay and again i go back to the months the months of the year the weeks of the days you're a hypocrite you are a hypocrite if you say the 25th is a pagan holiday because pretty much every day of the week is a pagan holiday because it's literally designated for a false god but i finished with this first corinthian six verse 12 says this listen to this all things are lawful unto me what does that mean i'm allowed to do anything obviously within the parameters of god's word but all things are not expedient now what does it mean when it says all things are not expedient it says you know not everything profits do a whole lot of things but not everything profits bodily exercise profiteth little godliness is profitable into all things we should obviously invest our time in things that will profit us in the long run spiritually whatever but he's saying here that they're lawful for us to do though that means god is okay with us doing christmas celebrating easter celebrating thanksgiving giving god thanks for what we have all things are lawful unto me but all things are not expedient all things are lawful for me but i will not be brought under the power of any just live a balanced life but the point that i'm trying to make here is that he says it's lawful for us to do it though it's lawful what does that mean it's permissible it's allowed god is okay with it yeah but didn't you know the romans gave each other gifts did they invent gift giving didn't you know that they feasted during that time did they invent invent feasting didn't you know they sang songs so i didn't know the romans invented singing yeah but and just remember this folks just listen to this god is not the copycat satan's the copycat so sardinalia if it was a legitimate thing created by satan he did it because he knew that he is essentially copying what god would already do one day which is the birth of jesus christ okay the word of god would be made flesh one day and so merry christmas to all of you okay you say why are you saying that merry you know observance of the birth of jesus christ and i hope that you know you know i think as far as i know everyone here celebrates christmas there might be someone who doesn't and i'm not trying to offend you and and i'm not against you but here's the thing though is that if you start teaching for doctrines the commandments of men then it becomes a problem okay that's pretty much it let's pray father we thank you so much for your word so thankful for the birth of jesus christ we're thankful that we live in a nation that even the unsaved recognize these things they they many businesses close down on the 25th so that people can be with their families and think upon the birth of jesus christ you know there's places in the world that don't do that communist nations and nations that abhor god the god of the bible they don't do that so thank god that we live in a nation where we can and i pray lord that as we approach the 25th even throughout the month of december although christmas for us falls on the 25th we pretty much take every single day in the month of december to think upon it that we would be grateful for the plan of sending jesus christ down here to die for our sins lord and the fact that he essentially was crucified even before the foundations of the world and lord help us to think upon those things to be grateful for them and be thankful that jesus christ breached all of eternity to come and reach us and i pray that you bless us the remainder of this month lord as we think upon those things we love you we thank you pray these things in jesus name amen please turn your song looks at song number 426 song number 426 is our last song i heard the bells on christmas day song number 426 all together nice and strong on that first verse i heard the bells on christmas day their old familiar carols play and wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth goodwill to men i thought how as the day had come of all christendom had rolled along the unbroken song of peace on earth goodwill to men and in despair i bowed my head there is no peace on earth i said for hate is strong and marks the song of peace on earth goodwill to men then peel the bells more loud and deep god is not dead nor dog he sleep the ride prevail with peace on earth goodwill to men till ringing singing on its way the world revolved from night to day a voice a chime sublime of peace on earth good will to men amen wonderful singing you are dismissed so you