[0:00] Thank you.
[0:30] Thank you.
[1:00] Merry Christmas. Thank you. Thank you.
[1:34] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. He is the Messiah. He is the Lord. Let's rise and sing that wonderful Christmas hymn, Christians Awake, Salute the Happy Morn, 201, upon which the Saviour of the world was born.
[1:56] Let's sing that wonderful Christmas hymn, 201. Let's sing that wonderful Christmas hymn, 201. Let me dig in more. Let him grab them. Let him roll, one by three, let him bring on our Sabbath his day.
[2:16] Please sit down.
[3:05] A very warm welcome to all of you, particularly those of you who are here for the first time to our fellowship. We do welcome you this Christmas morning.
[3:16] Trust that you have a very blessed and happy day with your family or friends, whoever you're with. And it's good and we're so grateful that you can join with us at the beginning of the day to worship our God and Saviour.
[3:32] So we're going to come to God now and pray, give thanks for the good things that we have. Remember those who have still many needs this Christmas. We've got so much.
[3:43] There's still many who have so little. So let's pray together now. As we come with thanks to God for his great gift. Father God, we thank you again that this morning, this Christmas morning, we thank you that we can come with joy and thanksgiving to sing the praises of you, your Son and your Holy Spirit.
[4:04] We thank you again that you are the God who does not change. And though it may be that Christmas is one of the few times we think about you, thank you that you are ever thoughtful of us, ever concerned for us, ever interested in our lives and the affairs of our lives.
[4:21] We thank you again that we thank you, our lives and the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you again that in the giving of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that you love us. We have the evidence, the living proof as it were, that whatever we may think of you, however we may not think of you, Lord, we thank you that you have loved us with an everlasting love, a great love.
[4:40] And we long, Lord, to worship and praise you and thank you for all that we have. Not just the food that we will enjoy, no doubt, and the toys and presents that we've been given and exchanged.
[4:51] Not only this lovely day with the weather that we have, not only the friendship and fellowship of family. But, Lord, we thank you again, especially for that great gift, the most precious, the most costly gift that could ever be given, the gift of your Son, the eternal Son of God, that he should be given to us.
[5:12] Given to us, Lord, that through him we might know you, enjoy you, enjoy the many, the manifold, the wonderful blessings that you have for each and every one of us.
[5:22] If only we would receive Jesus, Lord, he is the way into the treasury of heaven. We thank you, O Lord, again, that as we rejoice and give thanks for all that we have, we do not want to be forgetful of those who find Christmas difficult.
[5:39] Don't want to be forgetful of those who perhaps will have very little today, perhaps maybe even nothing today. We thank you for those who work and serve tirelessly to help and to care for the poor and the needy and the homeless and the orphan.
[5:54] We thank you again, O Lord, that you are the God who has given all good things that we might share. We do want to pray for those who find Christmas tough because it reminds them of loved ones who are no longer with us.
[6:07] And, Lord, particularly where we've lost loved ones in this past 12 months, this first Christmas can be tough. For we praise you and thank you that we have a savior, one in whom we have put our trust and faith, one who will never let us down nor fail us.
[6:22] And we pray again, O Lord, that you, the God of all comfort, would comfort those who mourn this Christmas. We especially just remember this mom who's lost her husband and two children in Spain, and we can't comprehend how terrible that is.
[6:37] But, Lord, we pray that you would be near to her and to other members of the family at this time. And, Lord, we pray again that you, the God who gives life which is stronger than death, would grant us that same life and hope in the face of death, to know, O Lord, that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[6:59] Amen. Amen. Amen. Now, every Christmas morning we have an offering. It's not an offering for the church, not for ourselves.
[7:10] We always take an offering that we might give to others who are in need. And this year there's two particular charities that we're giving to. One is to refugees in Syria, and particularly those who are Christians who've been forced out of their homes and living in refugee camps.
[7:28] So, half of the giving will go there, and the other half will go to the Barnabas Fund, which is a charity which we and many other Christians as well support, helping families of those who have loved ones who've been imprisoned for their faith or murdered for their faith or just simply driven from their homes, simply because they love the Lord Jesus Christ.
[7:50] So, we're going to take up an offering now as we sing a song together. Number 200, Child in the Manger. We'll remain seated as we sing this one, and we'll take up an offering, and that will go to those people in great need.
[8:06] 200, Child in the Manger. If you think you don't know it, you'll know the tune, and it's very easy to sing. Now, this is a time when we ask boys and girls, and maybe occasionally somebody who's a bit older, to share with us any of their gifts that they've received already this morning.
[8:37] So, if anybody has brought along something they'd like to show us, to share with us this Christmas morning, if they'd like to come up now and show us what they've got.
[8:49] Henry's got something interesting. Is that a Christmassy thing, Henry? Are you going to come and show me what it does? Yes.