Luke 2: 1 - 20

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Merry Christmas, y'all. Merry Christmas. It's a southern Christmas, isn't it? Boy, if you're from up north, welcome. This is what it's supposed to feel like. This is probably more original. The original Christmas was not wintry from what we know. It may not have even been this time of the year. But I like a Christmas with palm trees. I think Bethlehem had a few palm trees. I kind of like that. Maybe Christmas on the beach, right? Does that sound good, Logan? Swimming pool Christmas. That's the kind. And Logan, you did an awesome job in those videos. Pardon? I kind of messed up a couple times. Oh, you did not. If that's all I did, yeah, we like those mess ups, whatever they are. That adds to it. Hey, we're going to be playing a game right now, okay? Logan's playing, right? You're not going to play. Okay, Reese. She is the older of the sisters, can you tell? Yeah, and so I don't know if there's any other kids that want to come up. We're going to play a game just for a little bit. I don't know if any of you watch Sesame Street anymore or is it too lame? Is Sesame Street too lame, kids? Probably. Now, I know your parents have at least watched it because they're lame. Come on up. We're going to see some things and I need some help. This is the song. You can play this next clip. This is a song we grew up on. Do you remember this? It's not like the other. It's one of these things. Which one is it? You know, Phil had a hard time figuring it out at first. Yeah, Phil was going like, wait a minute, they're different shapes. Which one's different? Which one's? Yeah, that was easy, wasn't it? Yeah, well, we're going to do that with Christmas things, okay? Things that we associate with Christmas. So I'm going to show you some pictures and you have to tell me which one doesn't fit with the others. There will be four different shots. So we'll start out with the first one is a crib, okay? A baby crib. What's the next one? A mobile, a baby mobile. Hmm, do they fit together? Let's see, the third one is blankets, nice colors. And the fourth one is a feeding trough. Which one doesn't fit? The feeding trough. Yeah, you're right. Okay, let's try it again now, okay? Here's something else, okay? Santa. Okay, let's see who's next. Rudolph. What's that elf's name? I don't remember. What? Herbie. Herbie, is he the dentist guy? Yeah, okay, the third one. A stinky shepherd out in the middle of nowhere. And then the fourth one is frosty. The shepherd doesn't fit in. Isn't that interesting? Okay, let's try another one, okay? Christmas lights and a Christmas tree and a tinsel or garland and then finally... No. What is that? Do you know what that is? It's a cow pie. Not the kind of pie you eat, okay? Which one doesn't fit in? The cow pie, of course. Okay, and finally, okay? Finally, diapers and a changing table and straw and a baby bassinet or bathtub. The straw doesn't fit in. But you know what? This is the amazing thing, kids, and this is what we find out that's kind of shocking. The first Christmas, there wasn't tinsel and garland and trees and Santa and all that stuff. Not the first one. The first one, the four things that we had at that Christmas, I know there was a feeding trough and there was definitely stinky shepherds and probably a cow pie or two and probably some straw. And yet, that's the best Christmas of all. That's the one that started every other Christmas that we're talking about tonight, okay? And Logan, you and the rest of the kids did a marvelous job of talking about what I'm calling we're going to celebrate the gift of Christmas present. Last week, we actually, in service, talked about the gift of Christmas future, the future that we get through Christmas, through the prophecies of Isaiah and that wonderful future that we have before us. So we're kind of doing a kind of an Ebenezer Scrooge Dickens thing here. So we went from the future now to the present. And next week on January 1st, our next worship service, we're going to talk about the gift of Christmas, the past, okay? I know that's kind of weird. But we all need that our past, you know, a lot of people's pasts haunt them. And we need a gift for that. And we're going to talk about that next week. But today, we're talking about Christmas present. And the fact that that's kind of a double entendre, two words in one, two meanings in one, the gift of Christmas right here, present, and the gift of Christmas now, present. And the gift is God's own presence in front of us. He presents himself to us tonight. In the most odd way, the presence that he gives us, he gifts us, is the one that we need above all the other ones that are under our trees or anywhere else in our lives, okay? So we're going to be talking about three things tonight. How this gift makes a difference, how the gift is given, and how the gift is received. But we're g...