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Amen. All right, keep your place there in Matthew chapter 2. Of course, the very famous story about the wise men coming to visit Jesus. So I told you we're going to continue our American heresy series this morning and we're going to have a Christmas twist. So this morning I want to talk about Christmas traditions. Christmas traditions. So we see that the story of the three wise men here. Keep your place in chapter 2 of Matthew and turn to Romans 14. The first thing I want to do is we just studied Romans 14 so it's very convenient. It's fresh in your mind if you're here on Thursday night. The first thing I want to point out about Christmas traditions this morning is that there is nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas. You will find people who are very dogmatic about December 25th being not something we should celebrate and things like that. Of course, there was no proof that Jesus was actually born on December 25th. We acknowledge that. But as far as those that say, it's a pagan holiday. The Romans, they celebrated the winter solstice which is December 21st and December 22nd every year and there was kind of a long festival that always followed that. If you turn to Romans 14, let's just dispel this item right away. This isn't the point of the sermon but I want to get this off the table. Look at Romans 14 and verse number 5. The Bible says, One man esteemeth one day above another. Another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord. Just underline those words in your Bible. 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 he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not and giveth God thanks. Of course, in Romans 14 we are talking about brothers and sisters in Christ, people that are saved and it's just talking about if somebody regards a day over another day, if they regard it to the Lord, it's no big deal. So if the day is celebrated unto the Lord, there's no problem with that. So if you regard December 25th as Christmas as most Americans do, there is no issue with that at all according to the Bible. It's a time for you and your family to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world. You're regarding that unto the Lord. It's fine. As long as you're regarding it unto the Lord. Now, so that's as far as the Christmas, you know, everything, you know, you'll meet these people that everything's a pagan holiday and a Christmas tree is of the devil and things like that. That's not what the Bible says. Let every man be persuaded in his own mind. We talked about idols. That's a different story. But there's nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas on December 25th. Okay? It's regarded unto the Lord. It doesn't mean you're dogmatic and you believe Jesus was born December 25th. You're just celebrating the birth of Christ on that day. Okay? All right. Let's look at Christmas presents. Look at Matthew chapter 2. In Matthew chapter 2, we see the story of, you know, what we would consider the story of the three wise men. A couple interesting facts about the actual Bible and what it says about the wise men is that there really is no wording saying that there were three, first of all. It's just kind of assumed by people according to the gifts that they gave. People assume, you know, three and it just kind of became this thing in popular culture. Well, you know, since it was gold and frankincense and myrrh, there must have been three because, you know, but we don't know that. All right? Not that that's important. But it's also assumed that, you know, they visited, if you've seen this nativity scenes and things like that, that they were at the birth of Christ, that is also not the case. Look down at Matthew 2 and verse number 11. Matthew 2 and verse number 11. And the Bible reads, And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And then you see later in the chapter that Herod slew all the children from two and under. So we basically know for sure that the wise men visited Jesus somewhere between the age of zero and two years old. Probably zero and, you know, he was probably about one, I would think, because they had some travel time in there. But they were not at the birth of Christ. Okay? Now, the part of the giving of Christmas gifts, the tradition of giving Christmas gifts in the Bible, is the fact that the wise men brought gifts to Christ. Okay? Gold was, you know, signifying the kingship of Christ. The frankincense is an incense. It was to, you know, it's signifying the deity of Christ. And then, of course, the myrrh is an embalming oil signifying the death of Christ. So those also have some meaning. So this, along with the fact that God gave his only begotten son, is where we get this idea of giving gifts for Christmas. Okay? That's personally, that has always been my main understanding of what a Christmas gift is about, is that God is the gift giver. He gave us his son. He gave Jesus Christ for the sins of the world. So that's what it has always meant to me. Now, what I want to talk about today is what Christmas has become today in America. Okay? What does Christmas mean today in America? How did it happen? You know, what's the historical context? It's going to follow the same pattern that we've been going through with the American Heresy series. We're going to just look at what happened, what's the historical context of it. We won't spend a lot of time on that. But look, I personally don't like where the giving of Christmas gifts has gone today in this country. It's, you know, the commercialization of Christmas. I don't like it. All right? But that's not where the sermon's going today. All right? This morning I want to focus on the gift giver. And who is the gift giver? So this morning I'm going to talk about Santa Claus. All right? So kids, you know, first let's get this out of the way. Santa's not real. Okay? Notice I didn't say spoiler alert. Because no kid in here should think that Santa is real. All right? It's a huge thing. And my kids were always those kids. That my kids were always the ones telling the other people's kids at four years old that Santa's not real and everyone was always mad at us and everything. So, yeah, I'm that guy. All right? And my kids are those kids. Now, Santa Claus, where did he come from? What's the historical context of it? We're not going to spend a lot of time on this because, as you can see, there isn't a lot of historical context to actually where the Santa Claus that we know in America today came from. But it all began with this guy called St. Nicholas who lived from 270 AD to about 343 AD. We don't know a lot about him. We know that he was wealthy. We know that he gave gifts to children and that he was kind of a, he was a philanthropist of his time. We know that. All we really know about him is that he probably attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which was the first council of the Roman Catholic Church. Okay? So I'm not going to rip on St. Nicholas this morning. I don't know a lot about him. I'm not going to throw the guy under the bus. But he was probably involved in the Roman Catholic Church is what we know. The Council of Nicaea is when the Roman Catholic Church was ordered to come together. Everybody came together to come up with the doctrines of the church because that's how we should find doctrines of the church, right? We should all get together in a council under orders of a king and decide what the Christian faith should be, right? Isn't that how we do it? No. We follow what the Bible says and that's what we do, right? So back to Santa Claus. Basically, the Council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical conference, if you want to think about it that way. And it killed, to those people, to the Roman Catholic religion, it killed the idea of the independent church. So the idea of this independent church, which is, by the way, what the Bible talks about everywhere, you're not going to find a universal church in the Bible. What you're going to find is independent churches. That's what you find in the Bible. Why is it a big deal? Because that's what the Bible says and we are not to be underneath a king. We are to be underneath Christ and the Word of God is our boss. When the Bible is your boss, you're a Baptist. That's it. It's very simple, okay? Now, so you can see where, you know, the devil loves denominations, by the way. Because if I have this corporate structure of a church, all I've got to do is get the top guy. That's it. If I have independent churches, I have to knock off every single one of those churches. Because look, do we not know independent churches that have gone into damnable heresy? Have you not heard of that happening? But does it affect what we do here? No. Because we're an independent church. Because that's the model that God put forth. And that way, there will always be, no matter how many councils of Nicaea, no matter how many Roman Catholic churches or how many governments start their own different churches throughout history, we know that as an independent church, there will always be a surviving true church that follows the Bible. Okay? It's a great model. All right? Okay. Back to Santa Claus. You know, he has many nicknames. Chris Kringle, you know, Christ kind. December 6th around the world became known as St. Nicholas Day up until the time of the Reformation. And then, you know, basically St. Nicholas fell out of favor in Northern Europe, so they invented all kinds of different things called, you know, Rough Nicholas and Ashy Nicholas and Furry Nicholas. These figures were all kind of the same thing. They expected good behavior or forced children to suffer consequences. Like, I mean, some of these guys, like, they told the kids, like, if you don't be good, you're going to get kidnapped or whipped or whatever. You know, it was pretty, you know, Rough Nicholas was tougher than Santa is today. Right? Now, coming to America. America changed everything for Santa Claus. All right? In 1821, an anonymous illustrated poem entitled The Children's Friend went much further in shaping the modern Santa and associating him with Christmas. It took the magical gift bringing of St. Nicholas and stripped him of any religious characteristics. And then it dressed him in the furs of the shaggy, dramatic Santa Claus versions. And then finally, in 1822, a man named Clement Clark Moore wrote a poem called A Visit from St. Nicholas, better known today as The Night Before Christmas. This is where you get the reindeer and the flying sleigh and all these types of things. So what I'm trying to get you to understand is that Santa Claus, as we know him today, was basically invented by American pop culture. Okay? It basically, the night before Christmas, it went viral, if you want to think about it that way. And it invented what we know as Santa Claus. So it's kind of the Santa Claus that we all know and we see and the myth of Santa Claus is an American invention, largely. Okay? So you say, what's the big deal? You know, are you really preaching a sermon on Santa Claus? What's the big deal? Well, what I want to talk about is beliefs with Santa Claus and how they are actually very directed at children to mess them up in their life. Okay? So that's what we're going to talk about this morning. So beliefs about Santa in light of the Bible is what we're going to talk about. Alright? The first thing I want to bring up is that Santa Claus has God-like powers. Turn to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20. Santa has God-like powers. If you look at Exodus chapter 20 in verse number 3, you will see the first commandment. The first commandment that God gave Moses on the tablets. Exodus chapter 20 in verse number 3 says, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The first thing about Santa Claus is that he's immortal. Turn to Psalm chapter 90. Center of your Bible. If you open it up right in the middle, you'll find the book of Psalms and go to chapter number 90. Santa is also immortal. In Psalm chapter 90 in verse number 2 the Bible says, Before the mountains were brought forth, wherever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. There is only one being who is immortal according to the Bible. And it is God. We could read verse after verse after verse about how God is immortal. God is from everlasting to everlasting. It's an infinity symbol with arrows pointing in both directions. He was never created. He's always been. Like I said a couple weeks ago, somebody ever asked you the question, well, who created God, huh? The answer is nobody. Because he is from everlasting to everlasting. God is the only one that's immortal. Number 2. Santa is all-knowing. Keep in mind that this is what we're teaching children, okay? You're sitting here and you're like, I know that Santa, because you figured this out when you were, you know, seven or ten or twenty. Santa's not real, brother. We had to have this talk. Okay. Just kidding. But this is attacking children's base beliefs that they need to understand about someone else who is actually real in their life, okay? Santa is all-knowing. In Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the song, it says he sees you when you're sleeping and he knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. It's teaching children and I'm sure you all can just hear the tune of that song already, right? Because it's an earworm that's been hooked in you since you were a little kid and you will never forget it. Because music is that powerful. There's no way that I could ever force you to forget that song. You will always remember it. But they're teaching kids that Santa knows everything. That belongs to God. Turn to Psalm 147. It's another characteristic that belongs to God. And all of these items we could go into verse after verse after verse after verse in the Bible about, but I just want to give you a couple examples. In Psalms 147 and verse number 5, the Bible reads, great is our Lord and of great power. His understanding is infinite. God is omniscient. He knows everything. He's omnipotent as well. It says of great power. He has all power. He has all the power to do anything and he's omniscient, which means he knows everything. The hairs of your head, he knows how many there are, the Bible says. Okay? Once again, they're giving God's greatness, the characteristics of God's greatness to some mythical creature, alright? Or person. Number 3, he's magical. He is the magical gift giver. And it robs that from God. He has magical powers. He can fly. He's outside of time. All these different things. In John 3 16, the Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God is the one that did the giving. So they're stealing that from God. Okay? They're stealing that credit from God. It gets worse. Santa Claus and the belief of Santa Claus is based on works. And that's what we're teaching children at a young age. That it's based on works. And it gets even worse than that. Because what they are doing with the myth of Santa Claus is they're actually redefining what a simple word means. And they're redefining the word gift with Santa Claus. Look, we use this analogy when we go out and we talk to people. It's the easiest analogy. Because the Bible uses this analogy of a gift. We tell somebody, if I give you a gift and then I say, hey, I'm going to give you this gift and you have to go wash my car, is it really a gift? And what does everyone say? No. Because you're working for it. Everyone understands that. But the gift from Santa Claus is earned. See? If you're good, you get a gift. If not, you get coal or whatever. Look, it's of works. It's teaching works-based salvation at a young age to these children. And here's another thing that's really dangerous about it. It sets the bar low enough where everyone is able to get over it. Because have you ever really heard of anyone getting coal? Like for real? In this day and age in America? It never happens. So you don't really have to be that good. Whatever your bar is as a child, you're always able to step over it because you're going to get a Christmas gift anyway. So it's teaching works. But look, it just drives, everybody thinks that they're a good person. Hitler thought he was a good person. Everyone thinks they're a good person. I mean, it fosters this works-based attitude that leads to this idea that everyone will get to heaven. That everyone's just, you know, if you believe in works, then the next question is, do I have enough works to get to heaven? And with these types of things from a young age, you're teaching the children that yeah, you have enough. You're good. I got the Christmas gift anyway. I must have been good enough. Okay? Even worse, turn to Matthew chapter 7. It redefines the meaning of belief. Of belief. These are simple words. The Gospel is simple. But it's attacking the base simplicity of the Gospel. Look, you must believe, right? You have to not only do good works and be a good kid, but you have to believe that Santa exists. Otherwise, isn't that what's taught? Believe. When you see believe on the big posters or whatever and then you see the Santa movie or whatever is coming out, it's about believing that Santa exists. I mean, how many kids movies are out there that, you know, it's about, they have to believe in Santa. You have to be good and believe. But is that really what the Bible teaches? That the word belief means? Look at Matthew chapter 7 and look down at verse number 21. Look, is believing that Jesus exists all that is required to go to heaven? But you see? Look at Matthew 7 and verse number 21. This is Jesus talking. If you have a red letter Bible, these words will be read. Not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. These people call Jesus Lord. They obviously believe that He exists. But He is the Lord. He is He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? In thy name cast out devils. In thy name done many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Don't these people believe that Jesus exists? Then why are they going to hell? Because it is not about believing that Jesus exists. It is about, that's why you see those two words together dozens and dozens of times in the Bible about believing on Jesus. It is about believing on Jesus. Jesus said here, these people knew He existed. They called Him Lord. They're going to hell because they were trusting in their works. That's why these people were going to hell. So believing that Jesus exists and thinking you have good works, that's the Santa Claus model right there. That's what we're teaching these kids. That is not salvation. Salvation is believing on Jesus for my salvation. I have nothing to do with it myself. It's not 90% Jesus, 10% me. It's all or nothing folks. And it takes a humble person to be able to put everything and believe on Jesus Christ for your salvation. That is the danger of Santa Claus for kids. Those people in Matthew 21, those in Matthew 7 21, those people are going to hell. And notice how Jesus said, I never knew them. Because once you have believed on Jesus, He didn't say I used to know you. Or I knew you a few years ago and then I forgot who you were. Because once Jesus knows you, that's it. He knows you. Here's the third thing. The scariest thing about Santa Claus, when I think about this whole thing, is that the truth is discovered. Because the kids do discover the truth. At some point, either their parents decide that hey, the hoax is up or whatever. Or the kids hear from their other friends or whatever. The truth is discovered at a critical time in the child's life. Because when you're 7-8 years old, guess what you can start to understand? You can start to understand the gospel. If you're in a Bible preaching church and you have little kids right now and you go out soul winning and you sit under Bible preaching, here's what's going to happen when your kids get to be 5, 6, 7 years old. They're going to start asking you questions. They're going to start saying hey, I do bad things. Am I going to go to heaven? They're going to start getting convicted of their own sins. And they're going to start wanting to know what the truth is of the gospel. And they're going to know if they've heard you give the gospel to people over and over again. And that's when those children, that's why you hear so many people that grew up in Baptist homes, they got saved when they were 6, 7, 8, 9 years old. Right around the time that children are finding out that their parents have been lying to them for 6, 7, 8 years. Turn to your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 4. I mean should you lie to your kids? First of all, just like that base question. Should you lie to your kids? Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4. And look at verse number 1. And the Bible reads, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing at his kingdom? Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, absorb, with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto what? Fables. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, I'll just read it for you. You turn to 2 Peter chapter 1. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, in verse number 4, the Bible says, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith. You're going to confuse them. You're going to confuse your children. You know, it's almost like God knew this would happen when he writes things like this in the Bible. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 1. Are you there? Look at verse 16. The Bible reads, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Look, the Santa Claus thing is a cunningly devised fable and it's derailing kids. And here's another thing. It steals credit from God. And if you understand, look, Herod, Herod in the Bible is not the same Herod that God killed a little bit later in the book of Acts. It's his son because Herod died and then Jesus came back from Egypt. But look, Herod in the Bible in Acts chapter 12, Herod had just killed James. He had just murdered one of the apostles with the sword, the Bible says. And then he goes and he gives this great glorifying speech and everybody after the speech says this. Let me just turn there and read it for you. Everybody after the speech starts saying, it was such a great speech, everyone's like, he's like God, they said. I mean, imagine if I was such a good speaker. I mean, he must have been a great speech. People were like, he's like God. And then the Bible says that he gave, he gave not the glory to God. Think about it. He had just killed James a little while earlier in the book of Acts. He had just killed one of the greatest apostles and God didn't kill him for that. And then he goes and he gives a speech where people are calling him God and he gives God not the glory and God kills him. Right there. He strikes him dead. If you notice one thing in the Bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament when people steal credit from God, he comes down hard on them. Think about Jesus with the Pharisees. You know, the whole blaspheming of the Holy Ghost. What did the Pharisees do? Jesus had just cast a demon out of a man using the power of the Holy Ghost to do so. The third person in the Trinity. And the Pharisees gave that credit to Satan basically. And Jesus immediately damns him to hell for it right there. God takes stealing his credit extremely seriously. So you think that this Santa thing is a joke. No, it's very serious according to the Bible. Look it teaches your kids not to trust you. Especially in things of a spiritual nature. I mean one person found out that we didn't do Santa Claus with our kids many years ago and they're like what? And they came up to my kids and they're like Jesus and Santa Claus are friends. What in the world is wrong with you? I wasn't even saved at the time. And I'm like what is the matter with you? I mean look it's serious. It teaches them that their well being is based on works. It's teaching them works based salvation at a young age. And then you're going to come to them and you're going to tell them something completely different right after you've lied to them in the same area. Come on. Proverbs chapter 12. Go ahead and turn there. Book of Psalms right after book of Psalms is the book of Proverbs. Yeah let's go there. Look at Proverbs chapter 12 and verse number 22. I think we would do well if we paid attention to verses in the Bible where God uses the word abomination. I think we would do well. But sometimes we hear verses so much that I think that this word is lost on us. Look at Proverbs 12 and verse number 22. The Bible says lying lips are abomination to the Lord but they that deal truly are his delight. Look there are a lot of things that American culture teaches are no big deal that God calls an abomination. I mean the whole homo sodomy thing abomination. Dress standards. Men dressing like women and women dressing like men. It's funny to Americans but God calls it an abomination. You know what that means? That means God literally hates it. I mean we have to pay attention to what the Bible says. Lying lips are one of the things that God hates. So should you lie to your kids about anything? No. So look, people will hear a sermon like this and they'll say you know what you're no fun. You take the joy out of Christmas for your kids and you know what's wrong with you? They'll say it. Turn to Romans chapter 15. Let's find out what's wrong with me. Where does joy come from? It comes from the joy that God gives you. Where does joy come from? Let's see if the Bible has the answers to that question. Look at Romans 15 in verse number 13. The Bible says this. Now the hope of God, now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Let me read for you Romans 14 verse number 17. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. So when you got saved, the Bible says that you were sealed with this Holy Spirit of promise. You notice how these two verses I just read you, it said peace in believing. In believing on what? Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing the gospel and that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Joy and peace comes through that Holy Ghost that you were sealed by. That's where your joy comes from. When you got saved, look, the Holy Spirit will give you joy. That's true joy. Turn to Psalm 51. I'm going to read for you 1 Peter chapter 1 in verse number 8. Look, it's a gift and that gift, that Holy Spirit that gives you that joy is a gift that no one can take from you. 1 Peter chapter 1 in verse number 8 says this, whom having not seen ye love and whom though now ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. The Bible says that if you're saved and you're sealed with the Holy Ghost, you have joy unspeakable. I mean, is that better than some stupid fake story in a remote control car? I mean, what in the world? Look at Psalm 51. Joy is tied to salvation and that sealing of the Holy Spirit. Look, the Holy Spirit is what sealed you, is what sealed you, is that source of joy in you. By the way, once again, that's eternal security in the Bible. You rejoice with joy unspeakable. If I thought that, you know, I could go and lose this gift I've been given, I would just be nervous and freaking out all the time about it. But I'm sealed. And that's how I can have this joy. That's why when you're out soul winning, you can really tell if somebody gets it if they're just like very joyful because they've just been given the best gift that anyone could ever give them. And they're sealed by the Holy Ghost. Psalm 51. Psalm 51 is right after David had committed adultery, he murdered Uriah the Hittite, I mean, he committed adultery with the man's wife, then he killed the man, along with several other people he killed, by the way. I mean, Uriah the Hittite was one of the mighty men. He's not the easiest guy in the world to kill. So he went into this battle and a lot of men died with Uriah that day. David had committed a horrible sin. God came down on him hard. God, you know, took his son from him. But look what David says in Psalm 51 in verse number 12. Look what he says. He says, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Did he say restore my salvation to me? He said restore unto me the joy and uphold me with thy free spirit. He says, give me that, give me that joy back, Lord. And God did. And then he says, then I will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. He's like, I'll go tell people, I'll go preach your word to people. I will get people saved too, is what he says. Look, these people that are into this Santa Claus stuff, they're causing their child, their children to stumble. Remember Romans 14 a few days ago? It says, hey, don't get down on people for things that don't matter. Don't be beating down on people for what days they celebrate or what they eat because, you know, we're free in Christ now, but don't cause people to stumble that have those convictions in their life. Imagine causing someone who's unsaved to stumble. What's that going to do for their odds of ever getting saved? Imagine if that unsaved person that you were causing to stumble was a child. I mean, you are messing these kids up by teaching them these things. Look, Santa Claus messes with core beliefs that are directly tied to salvation. Do you think that that's an accident? Do you think that that's an accident? I mean, these beliefs, this idea that it's not of works, that you must believe on Jesus Christ completely for your salvation, that is, it's being attacked by this stuff. Okay? Now, just in conclusion tonight, or this morning, and a little bit of application, what should we be teaching our kids is the question. What should you be teaching your kids at a young age? And the Santa Claus thing is a perfect example of you can use this as a lesson for your kids when they're very young because all the other kids are going to be believing something like Santa Claus. You can use this. The thing that you should be teaching your kids at a young age is that you should teach them to always seek the truth. Turn to John 14. It's our verse of the week. Just look at the front of your bulletin. John 14, 6, the Bible says, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Look, here's what I know about you this morning, especially if you're saved. Here's what I know. I know at some point in your life, you wanted to know what was true. And especially, you know, those of us who got saved later in life, you know, when we were adults, at some point in your life, you had to set aside your pride, and what you grew up with, and what you thought was true. And just say, you know what? I just want to know what's true. That's the common thing. In this church, you go up and visit Verity Sacramento. That's the one common thing. We all believe different things about things that don't matter, right? We might have little different political things here and there. We might have different views on conspiracy theories, whatever. But at some point, we all wanted to just know what was true. That's the common thread. Look, everything that this world is teaching is false. Think about it. Think about the public school system. Where you came from, the origins of life in the universe, it's all wrong. Nothing on TV is real. I mean, reality TV, it's not real. I'm sorry. I mean, nothing that you see in the news. I mean, the news, it's all from a godless, biased perspective on one wing of the political bird. Same bird. It's all a biased perspective. None of it's real. Nothing you read about what's happening overseas for what reason is real. You don't know. Nothing politicians say is true. They just want to get elected. It's a game for them. That's it. We were at Best Buy. I was at Best Buy with the boys a couple days ago. We had to get some AV equipment and we had to walk into where all the TVs and projectors and all that stuff are. I mean, look. Then they had the huge screens with 4K, everything, and all these sci-fi images. I mean, look, it's fantastic. Fantastic in the sense of far from reality is what it is. And then you got the video games over here that are just like, look, we live in a society where everything is fake. Everything's fake. People are going to wake up. There's going to be people that wake up 30 years from now. This is what I told the boys when we were walking out of there. I mean, it's drawing to people. They live in this stuff. I told the boys, I said, there's going to be people that wake up in 30 years realizing they wasted their whole life in a screen in a reality that's not real. I mean, how sad is that? And you know what? The actual truth is, is that most of the people out there, they won't wake up. That's just how they'll live their life. They'll live this meaningless nothing life and most of them will not wake up. It's a draw. You can see why it's a draw. Don't participate in the fakeness. Teach your kids to seek the truth. I walked out of work the other day and I worked in that huge building downtown and there was a line, there was a big ballroom in the bottom of the building and it was rented out by some Santa organization. There's a Santa organization. You want to talk about dead works? I mean, there's people that spend their time volunteering and this is their mark they're going to leave on this world, answering Santa letters for the post office. I mean, what? I mean, this is what they're doing. Hey, this kid just wrote to me that his mom died and he needs this and this and this and I'm going to write back to him and continue the lie. Talk about dead works and just wickedness in general. But there's a line to see Santa Claus. There's a line out the building and two blocks down. Police shut the street down. I mean, it's crazy. Kids are screaming. They don't want to sit on some weird fat old guy's lap that they don't know. I mean, what's wrong with these parents walking in the mall a couple weeks ago with Jacob? We walked by the Santa thing. We want to go sit on that fat old guy's lap? No. I'm like, all right. Raising them right. It's weird, folks. When you have the basis and you're grounded in the Bible, these things are strange and they should be strange. Turn to John 18. We'll finish up here. John 18. John chapter 18. We see the story of Jesus standing in front of Pontius Pilate. There's a couple things I just want to point out here. It's an interesting story. John 18. Look at verse number 33. We'll start there. Then Pilate, this is the Jews, had brought Jesus to the governor of the Romans at the time. It was Pontius Pilate. And he tried to let him go, but the Jews just insisted, insisted, insisted. And Pontius Pilate was ultimately a politician. He didn't want to get in trouble with the people, so he caved. But look at John 18 and verse number 33. Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, Art thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Jesus said, Who told you this? And Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? He just had a disdain for the Jews. You could tell. Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born. To be a king, he sang, I am the king. And for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. And Pilate said unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and said unto them, I find no fault. I find in him no fault at all. Look, Pilate was a thinker, is what this tells me. He knew that the truth of his time was according to every man. He knew that just truth was according to what you thought it was, and that wasn't the same truth that I think is. Look, without God, and without the Bible, and without being grounded in the word of God, that's what it is. It's whatever you think it is. Your truth is not my truth. This is why the atheist is so dangerous, and it just falls apart immediately. Because everyone would just want what is best for them. But look, there is an absolute truth, and it is Christ. And the irony of the whole situation is when Pilate said, What is truth? Look at the front of your bulletin. The truth was standing right in front of him. Because Jesus said, I am the truth. In John 14 6. So it's ironic that Pilate was asking a question like that when he was staring at truth right in the face. So on December 25th, celebrate truth coming into the world is what we should do. Celebrate Jesus Christ. You know, the real gift of eternal life is through him. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for all these people, Lord. We thank you for the ultimate gift of salvation, Lord. We thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, that we may have that gift through him. Lord, help us to celebrate December 25th unto you, Lord, unto your day. And help us not get wrapped up in all the other garbage that everybody else around us is getting wrapped up in, Lord. Let us remember that this day is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Lord, we love you. Thank you for today. In Jesus' name, Amen. you