Rom 16:25-27 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.   
While this is not a traditional Christmas passage, it brings us to the very purpose for the birth of the Son of God. The Holy Spirit ties up the entirety of our life in Christ in these verses. It is the condensation of the active faith of Christ that found its fulfillment those 2000 years ago. It is an aspect of the promise of God held within the faith of Jesus Christ indwelling us. That faith is the life force of all who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior. In that faith, we come face-to-face with the glory of God in His only begotten Son. It works to infuse us with thanksgiving for all the work of God accomplished in Jesus Christ.
	There are many, wonderfully inherent truths held within this passage before us. One key element is that Christ works effectively and fully in our lives to bring forth praise unto the Father, Most Holy, Most Majestic, Most Powerful, and Most Wise. As Paul writes in Gal 3:8-14, God had this plan of salvation and faith in place far before the physical birth of Jesus of Nazareth.  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations shall be blessed in you." So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them." Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “The righteous man shall live by faith. " However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, "He who practices them shall live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us — for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" — in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The Word of God is rich in declaring how God’s faith manifests itself in the lives that we live unto the glory of God.
	As members of the Body of Christ, as we are living physically on this earth, we are called to be the expression of the love of God in Christ Jesus, Who indwells us. This is only accomplished as the very faith of Christ becomes our life. There is nothing that we can bring to the table. There is nothing that makes us worthy of this great gift and promise of God. It is only by the choice of His Love that we are drawn unto Him. In that boundless love, our walk on this earth becomes the reflection of the spiritual truth of Jesus Christ’s sovereignty, love, and holiness at work within us.
	The glorious reality of the all-encompassing faith of Christ manifested itself to Paul in a variety of manners. He saw the desire of the heart of God Who so loved the World. It was not just the Hebrew world, but the whole world that could believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ. Christ was born for the express purpose of drawing all our hearts, by His faith, unto God the Father.
There are no limits to the working power of the faith of God manifested in Christ. There is no boundary to withhold the grace of God from any nation or people. There is no length that His grace will not traverse in order to bring life into the heart of anyone who will turn from wickedness and sin and seek God in the Holiness and Righteousness of Jesus Christ. Fully in line with this tremendous, liberating, and unhidden truth of the work of God, we need to be encouraged as to some of the aspects that are now true of us in Christ. 
One of these realities is recorded in Rom 15:1-6, Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached Thee fell upon Me." For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus; that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  
Paul is encouraging and exhorting believers unto the fullness that is ours in Christ Jesus. He is calling forth the wisdom to seek after God in all things, to rely on Him in all things, and to give Him glory in all things. There is no part of our lives that is hidden from the work of God. That righteous work is what establishes the faith of Christ as the source of our life on this earth. We become open even to the point of encouraging and standing with our brothers who are new to the faith of God, who are weak in the knowledge of the substance of Christ, who are taking their first steps now that Christ has become their life.
Note that Paul states we are to carry the burden, carry to the Lord the doubts and frailties of their belief. We are to stand on their behalf and seek after that which would be edifying with no concern for ourselves as to the hatred and the taunts of this age. We need to seek the Lord to work into us patience and endurance and kindness and the ability to edify one another in Him. 
As well, Paul includes a most important aspect in his encouragement in the faith of Christ. Verse 4 of Chapter 15, For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. He encourages us to reverence the scripture, the Word of God. It was written for our instruction. It was given to us by God in order to show the excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ. It declares the triumphant glory of His birth, His crucifixion, and His victorious resurrection. 
His Word declares the very splendor of Jesus Christ. In His Word, we are given the instruction as to holding fast to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. In Rom 10:17, Paul writes: So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. 
Faith is borne, not from our efforts and striving, no matter how well intended they might be; faith comes through hearing. It is as we focus our attention, our complete attention upon God and what He is teaching us through His Word of instruction, that we will find His faith flourishing within our beings. This is centered in hearing because hearing is a very acute discipline of our beings. We need to learn how to hear what is being told us in the Word. In hearing the Word, we must be broken asunder in order for every grain of His Word to penetrate and to be embedded into our very being. It takes hearing, a hearing that goes beyond sound, a hearing that goes beyond ideas, and a hearing that goes far beyond human comprehension. It takes hearing the Word of God through the effective ministry of the Holy Spirit to develop Christ’s faith in us.
The effective ministry of the Holy Spirit, and our hearing, our listening to Him, our obedience to that which we are told of Christ, is what will bring forth faith. I wonder how many of us truly hear the Word, whether on Sunday mornings, or at Bible studies, or even as we read the Scripture? As we do, how many of us ask the Holy Spirit to speak into our innermost beings the words of His instructions, of His edification, of His understanding? Rather than actively seeking to hear the voice of God opened in us through the work of the Holy Spirit, we may tend to tune it out. We may listen half-heartedly, thinking of what the week ahead of us entails, or dwelling on the miseries of the week just past. Rather than being attuned to Him, we can get caught up in the thoughts and cares of this earthly life that we trudge through everyday.
We show an immaturity with our seemingly infinite capacity for selective hearing. We can be so adept at picking and choosing that which we want to hear, rather than that which we need to hear. We read through the Word, picking out that which we like and discarding the truths that we dislike. We use all kinds of excuses, such as the Old Testament was just for the Children of Israel in their day. It no longer pertains to us in our present world. We claim that things have changed so drastically since then that we need to put a new spin on the Word, a new interpretation of the intent of what was written those thousands of years ago. We close our ears to the Words of the Old Testament, describing the plight of the Hebrews as they continually turned their hearts away from God. We chuckle to ourselves at the stories that we used to cherish as children, and discard them as merely stories to entertain the young. 
Oh, how little hearing is actually taking place within the church today! How much dross is being piled onto the scripture in an effort to dilute the truth of Jesus Christ! We do not want to hear, because, to truly listen, means that we have to be changed from self-seeking into Christ-seeking believers. It will not be enough, if we hear, if we truly hear the Word of God proclaimed in His infinite Power, Grace, Love, Mercy and Holiness, to continue as we were. Hearing the Word is a dynamic application of God’s faith into these human hearts. It is the force of the Holiness of God entering that which is corrupt and flinging it to the farthest reaches of creation. His faith, His active, working, cleansing, life-giving faith pulls the cotton from our spiritual ears and gives the voice of the Holy Spirit our complete attention and absolute obedience.
  At that point of His instillation of faith into our hearts, we will never be the same. We will find that our concern is no longer for ourselves and our glory on this earth. It will not be for those things that we can get out of life or achieve in this realm. It will find us seeking, whole-heartedly seeking after the glory of God Alone. His Word will draw forth from us the reverence that He deserves and we will cherish every word from Him. We will see Christ in every aspect of scripture. We will see Him exalted in the course of God’s plan of mercy and grace. We will see the holiness of God throughout the Word, the holiness that created all and keeps everything in place by the power of His Word. We will find the Holiness of God, which was formerly unapproachable, inaccessible, and unattainable, opened into us in the Word made life, Jesus Christ. 
That is a complete upheaval of our beings. What once was beyond comprehension, beyond our strength, our endurance, and our efforts, is now our very life in the faith that God plants and waters and prunes and reaps in our beings. We will face tribulation, not with anguish, but with thanksgiving in the victorious knowledge that we have nothing to fear. 
We belong to God and He will see us through, just as He kept those prophets and as He has kept that remnant after His heart throughout the whole of history. We belong to God, and in His faith, we have rest in the midst of the fiercest storms and gales. We stand in Him facing the hurricanes of rage from this age and proclaim that the child, born to a virgin, those 2000 years ago, and nurtured by the Holy Spirit is in fact The Son of God, our risen Lord Jesus Christ, the only Lord of all creation. We will be that single voice that resolutely proclaims the glory of Jesus Christ, victorious! 
Our hearts will be joined in the oneness expressed by the Apostle Paul, in Rom. 15. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus; that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Let us hear and obey the Word of God, spoken into us by the Holy Spirit. Let us seek after Him to make our lives the ever more perfect expression of His glory on this earth. We must quit seeing how things affect us, how we have been mistreated, how we have been maligned, how we have been falsely accused, and rather sink our beings into the faith that God is developing in us. He is at work, individually and corporately, to have that which will bring honor and glory to His name. 
Let our hearts be one in that single desire, to give every aspect of our hearts, minds, and souls unto God for His name’s sake. Let His faith, the great promise of His effective life within us, manifest Christ, even at the cost of all that we desperately cling to in the death grip of our old beings. It is dead, so leave it on the death side of the cross! Have done with it once and for all! Seek after the Holy Spirit to work into us hearts that crave more and more after the glory of God, His Majesty, His Honor, His Magnificence, His Joy in the faith of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.

Phyllis Greene went home to be with the Lord this past Weds. 
Guests
Announcements:     	Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting
				Women’s Meeting?
				Young People’s Meetings?
			No meeting at Dupar’s this week or next 
			week
Men’s Meeting – Monday, Jan. 7 (remind Kip and Jay for Feb.)
Other announcements?  
Next Sunday, Dec 30 the Christmas/New Year’s Fellowship Feast will be in this room after worship. Bring of the bounty of the Lord to share together in His goodness.
Birthdays:		Thursday -	Martin Lexutt
					Wyatt Kling

Today’s Benediction and Scripture reading contains the chronicle of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Luke Chapter 2. Now it came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register, along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. And it came about that while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. And the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger." And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." And it came about when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us." And they came in haste and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. And when they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them. And when eight days were completed before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every first-born male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord"), and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, "A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, "Now Lord, Thou dost let Thy bond-servant depart In peace, according to Thy word; For my eyes have seen Thy salvation, Which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, A light of revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Thy people Israel." And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him. And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed — and a sword will pierce even your own soul —  to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with a husband seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. And she never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. And the Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. And His parents used to go to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. And His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day's journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. And when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, looking for Him. And it came about that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. And when they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You." And He said to them, "Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?" And they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Amen.
Our heartfelt prayer for all is that God’s grace and peace will bless you this Christmas and every day of our lives through the faith of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.