22.12.24 am Family Service

[0:00] Good morning. A warm welcome to the service today. I don't know why we're starting with balloons, but there's balloons here. A warm welcome, and especially to those who are visiting, I've seen some faces that I haven't seen for a while, students who are home, and some maybe who are here for the first time, and a very warm welcome to everybody to this Christmas family service today. After the service, there's going to be tea and coffee, mince pies, I expect, so if you're able to stay behind, please do so. The notices were on the screen before the service and went out in the email, so I'm not going to take much time to go through them. All I will do is remind you that this evening there's a Lessons and Carols service at six tonight, and that's, as it was last year, just an in-person service only, so there's no YouTube stream for that, but there'll be an in-person service at six this evening. And the other thing to note, two more things to note, is one, that the watch night service, as we have it each year, that's on again this year at 11.15 on the 24th. There might be tea and coffee just before that, so 11.15 through to midnight Christmas morning, so please note that. And the last thing to note is that the prayer meeting, which would usually be on Wednesday night, Christmas day, is not going to be on Wednesday this week, it will be on Thursday. So the prayer meeting at half past seven on Thursday this week. Last thing is I and the family plan to go away on the 26th, if the weather lets us, for a couple of weeks. If there's any pastoral issues when I'm away, then speak to one of the elders in the first instance, please, and Andrew Coggle is on standby if a minister is needed.

[1:59] So let's begin this time of worship and let's sing to God's praise. I will sing from hymn 172. The words will be on the screen in just a moment, O little town of Bethlehem.

[2:13] O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see the light.

[2:39] A love, dear deep and dreamless sweet, the silent stars go by.

[2:51] Yet in my dark streets shined me everlasting light.

[3:03] The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

[3:15] O morning stars together, proclaim the holy birth.

[3:27] And praises sing to God the King and peace to Him on earth.

[3:40] For Christ is born of Mary and gathered all upon.

[3:51] While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of one great love.

[4:05] How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given.

[4:15] So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His name.

[4:28] No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin. Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters Him.

[4:51] O holy child of breath we end, descend to us we pray.

[5:03] Cast and our sin and entering be born in us today.

[5:15] We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell.

[5:27] O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.

[5:38] Well, it's good to be with you, and we'll join together in prayer now.

[5:50] So let us pray. Now, Father in heaven, we thank you for this day that you have given to us. We thank you for your day, a day where we remember you as our risen Lord Jesus.

[6:03] but today we also remember you as the child that came in the manger and lord you just ask that you would help us to understand who jesus was and what he has done for us and that you sent him to save us to bring us into your presence so that you may be with us and we may be with you so as we come to you and worship and praise on your day we pray that we would have a peace in our hearts that you would still us before you and your presence and that you may speak to us that you may speak to our hearts and our minds that we may see in a new way who jesus is that we may understand in a way that we never have done before who you are as god and the sending of your son that great news that came to the people 2 000 years ago may that be good news to us today that we may see the salvation that we can have in jesus christ that is freely offered to each and every one of us today that we may grasp and understand who we are before god and that we may cling to jesus as our only hope of salvation that this child in the manger was the hopes of the nations that he is the everlasting father the the wonderful counselor the prince of peace lord we just pray that you would help us today we thank you for each and every one that is here we just ask that you would watch over us thank you for bringing us together thank you for this time that we have together we pray for safe travels for those that are traveling to be with their families and friends we pray that your hand would be over them and this weather that is unclement and not the easiest of weather to deal with we just pray that you would keep everyone safe at this time of year and watch over but we thank you that you can bring us together thank you for each other we thank you for the children that are here with us and we thank you for the older ones as well and that we can join together today so we just ask that you would be with us we thank you for the time that we have here we thank you that we can remember you we thank you for the health and strength that you give us we pray remembering those who do not have what we have those who are in countries that are experiencing war we pray not understanding what we are in countries that are experiencing war we pray for those who are in hospital this time at christmas just ask that you would be with them as well and we pray for those who remember loved ones that are no longer here with us and we just pray that you would be with them and comfort them a time that can be difficult for many we just pray that you would be with each and every one of us but that we would all see the salvation that is to be had in this child jesus coming into this world to save us from our sins to give us hope of everlasting life everlasting life so let us see him this morning in a way that we never have be with us we pray we ask these things in jesus name amen now today is a bit of a different service uh myself and david are sharing it so we'll be up and down we'll be swapping

[10:06] and uh today we're going to talk about names we all have names names are important to us and we know each other by names my name is scott and we've got lots of other names but since we've moved to harris since august time we've met lots of people which means trying to learn lots of names it can be hard to remember everyone's names but i think i think i think i'm getting it we've got a ruthie and a amari and o katie we've got a bethany is it a benjamin or a finley and then we've got a morris no no it's not morris it's michael i'm getting there i'm getting there but it's not easy to try to remember everyone's names our names our names are important and our parents gave us these names and maybe maybe for a reason they gave us that name maybe we're named after someone or maybe they just like the name that we've been given it's part of who you are because say bethany we expect bethany and say michael or benjamin or finley and we expect them when we think about that name but i noticed being in harris that some people have more than one name i've come across a kiki and a taffy there's more names to remember and other names that i dare not mention but these names give us hints about who the people are or maybe what family they come from maybe tells us what they're like or even their name might even tell us what they do you might have a gordon the policeman that's who you that's who gordon is and you may have others i don't know you may have a cook called kathy you may have a captain called roddy and we give them these names because that's what they do you may have david the minister and you may have henry the hoover which is totally different name to what we expect of henry so the names are important and names tell us something maybe about what the person does or who they are so they help us understand each of us and since it is christmas time today we're going to think about the names that was given to this baby that came into this world the son of god so we're going to think about these names of the child that was born three names we're going to have today so three names i want you to remember first one's going to be christ the second one's going to be emmanuel and the third one's going to be jesus so we're going to me and david are going to talk to you about about these names but before we before we think about these names christ emmanuel jesus we're going to we're going to sing and after we sing david will take us through our first name which is going to be christ so we're going to sing and we're going to sing in psalm 8 verses 1 to 4 and the words there are how excellent in all the earth lord our lord is thy name okay so we'll stand and we'll sing these words to god's praise how excellent in all the earth lord our lord is thy name who has thy glory far advanced

[14:15] above the starry frame from infants and from sucklings man thou didst strength ordain for life was caused that so thou might the avenging for restraint when i look up unto the heavens which thine own fingers bring unto the moon and to the stars which were by thee ordained then say i what is man that he remembered is by thee or what the son of man that thou so kind to him should speak boys and girls it's good to see so many of you out this morning are you going to speak to me and ask you a question or two you're always a wee bit shyer when you're just not there but you're just a little bit over there but i hope you'll speak to me this morning so what we're remembering at this time of year and in this service is the fact that there was a child and he was born and when the when the angels were telling

[16:17] Mary and Joseph and the shepherds about this child that was going to be born they used different names to tell them who this child would be and the first name that we're thinking about can you remember what the first name is of the child that was born on the first Christmas Frasier Christ so the first name we are thinking about is the name Christ and Christ is the name that the angels used when they were telling the shepherds remember the shepherds were the first to hear the news of the child that was born which was amazing because nobody really cared about the shepherds they were just the bottom of everyone they weren't important people they were just shepherds and yet God said I want them to hear the news first because that's how important they are to me so what we're going to hear just now is we're going to hear the story from Luke chapter 2 where the shepherds are out in a field and they receive the news of the baby that was going to be born so that is going to be read by

[17:35] Henry the Hoover Henry not the Hoover Henry the heartbreaker more like probably so we're going to read from Luke chapter 2 verses 8 to 12 so if you could read that out for us please and in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the land shone around them and they were filled with fear and the angel said to them fear not for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people for unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour who is Christ the Lord and this will be a sign for you you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger thank you Henry before you go just tell me one more time so the angels came and they spoke to the shepherds and they said to you unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour who is

[18:49] Christ who is Christ thank you Henry who is Christ the Lord can any of you tell me here's a question can any of you tell me what Christ means because our names we have our names can mean something I was at Harris House this week and I was looking at names and I was thinking about the name Donald looked up the name Donald because there's a man called Donald there and his name meant ruler he's like the ruler of the house and then I had Farrakhar with me and he was doing the presenting and his name means you know what Farrakhar means it means the very beloved one is that not right Katrina so our names mean something do you know what Christ means it means promised one that's what it means it means promised one boys and girls do you ever make promises put your hand up if you've ever made a promise anybody want to tell me what promises you might have made no you weren't so keen to tell me are you do you ever promise to tidy your room do you ever promise to do your homework we all make promises but sometimes it can be a bit hard to keep our promises we were having this yesterday at breakfast when we were having pancakes and this this thing we all tasted

[20:45] Nutella delicious chocolate spread when this was being sold at first they made a promise and it said in their advertising campaign that this was a healthy breakfast option and there was one lady in America America and she gave this to her little boy every day she gave him this is a healthy breakfast option and she noticed over the years that he wasn't getting healthier he was getting a bit wider but he wasn't getting any healthier and she looked into it then and discovered it wasn't actually a very healthy option so do you know that they had to pay three million dollars to this mother because they made a promise that she believed but they didn't keep it I was looking up the promise in the advertising campaign for the Volkswagen up the little car that I'm forced to drive day by day week by week seems year by year now year two we're in for the

[21:52] Volkswagen up do you know what the advertising slogan is for the Volkswagen up do you know the promise they said you wouldn't believe this small is great I'm suing in the morning one of our girls once made a promise we were I was being asked and asked and asked and asked and asked over and over again can we have a dog dad can we have a dog please can we have a dog can we have a dog I want to have a dog and I said but there's work in having a dog you've got to feed the dog and you've got to care for the dog and you've got to walk the dog we'll do all that dad we'll do all that and one of our girls I won't tell you which one it was but she made a promise I was going to show it on the screen but it won't work on the screen so I'll just let you hear the promise so you hear this promise say all that again guys

[22:56] I will take the dog out for walk in the rain snow and even in midgie's dad yes really yes promise yes promise what what what do you promise that you what that I think it'll get for walk in the rain snow and midgie's how many nights a week what how often a week every day a week you heard it there didn't you I will take the dog for a walk dad in the rain and the cold and the wind and even in the midgie's dad are you sure about that yes and it was repeated I will take the dog for a walk in the rain and the cold and the wind and even in the midgie's dad how many days a week every day a week that was the promise do you think that promise was always kept not always most of the time but not always there's been some midgie days that nobody's been very keen to take short us out for a walk some rainy days that nobody's been very keen to take short us out for a walk so promises can be hard to keep sometimes if we're truthful we think about the promises that we make we break them but God never breaks his promises that's the point I want you to remember

[24:30] God never breaks his promises there's a whole book full of promises here in the Bible and every single promise that God has ever made he has kicked and right at the very beginning of the world remember God made the world and it was absolutely perfect and it was just full of light it was bright and then Adam and Eve did a silly thing and something came into the world that made the world darker what was the thing that came into the world called remember sin that's right and sin made God sad when he saw it and sin made God angry but God made a plan to bring light into a dark world God made a promise that he was going to send someone who would chase away the darkness and he would fill the world with light who would push sin back who would take sin away that was

[25:44] God's promise that he would send someone who would bring light we're going to hear that promise actually from Isaiah chapter 9 and Emily's going to come and read that for us so let's just hear God's promise so we've got it in our minds the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shone thank you Emily the people who walked in darkness the world had gone all dark sin was in and God used this man called Isaiah to write his promise that there's going to be a huge great light coming a light was going to shine someone was going to come and that person was going to be the light so here's the question boys and girls just before I hand back to

[26:44] Scott in a minute who was born into the world to be the answer to God's promise who came into the world to be the light Henry yeah and what's the name that we're remembering Henry Christ the promised one the Christ he was born into this world and what is Christmas all about who is Christmas all about clue in the name clue in the name Michael Christ Christ miss so the first name that we're remembering when we think about the child who was born on that first Christmas is the name what is the name Christ what does it mean it means promised one we're going to sing now and we're going to sing hymn number 176

[27:56] Silent Night and in this hymn you'll hear the word Christ the Saviour is born so we'll stand to sing in just a moment still the night holy the night!

[28:10] song! songNINGNINGNING! Amen. Watch for the child beloved and fair Sleep in heavenly rest Sleep in heavenly rest Still the night, holy the night

[29:16] Shepherds first saw the light Every sounding clear and long Far and near the angels' song Christ, the Redeemer, is here Christ, the Redeemer, is here Still the night, holy the night Son of God, oh how bright Love is smiling from thy face

[30:16] Stripes for us now the hour of praise Savior, since thou art born Savior, since thou art born Now we come now to your second name Can anyone remember?

[30:52] Second name? Funny one beginning with I, Fraser? Emmanuel Emmanuel, yeah That's our second name, Emmanuel And this name means This name, God with us Emmanuel means God with us And that's a great name Because that's one of these names That tells us what God is like God is with us God is not apart from us But he's with us, beside us And one of the great things About Christmas time is being with people Being with family Getting friends from one another Sharing things together Being together, having dinner together even The turkey's great And the stuffing's great And the Brussels sprouts are even better I like Brussels sprouts But the best thing about Christmas Is all the people that we share it with We come together, we have dinner together

[31:52] We enjoy that special time together And often we have these things, don't we? When we have Christmas dinner When we have Christmas dinner And there's something inside And we pull them on I could pull it on my own But it wouldn't be very fun, is it?

[32:08] If I was just having dinner on myself Pulling my cracker by myself And then putting a hat on by myself That wouldn't be very fun, would it? No, pretty boring So there are two boys at the end Do you want to pull this for me?

[32:24] Do you want to come up and pull? Do you want to pull? Do you want to pull?

[32:38] Do you want to pull? Do you want to pull? Do you want to pull? Is that dead, is it? No, we've got something in it It's a surprise, isn't it?

[32:50] There's a joke in it Who says oh, oh, oh? Scott Today, eh?

[33:02] Santa walking backwards And there's glasses And a hat So there you go, the boy Quality crack There you go But it wouldn't be very fun If you were sitting there on your own Putting on the glasses Putting on the hat It's great to share Share these things with one another With our family With our friends Pull the crackers together Read the jokes together Put on the hats And be a wee bit silly at times It's good to be together Be with one another Now Emmanuel means God with us And in Matthew There's a bit that tells us about Emmanuel And One of the boys has the reading for Matthew

[34:02] Is it Morris? Morris Michael If you want to come up and read us A bit from Matthew chapter 1 Oh, is that ripped too?

[34:15] It's up here Can you see it? Yep All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son And they shall call his name Emmanuel Which means God with us Thank you very much, Michael The baby that was born They were told They shall call his name Emmanuel Which means God with us The baby God It wasn't just a baby It was God And it was God Come here to be with us It wasn't just the son of Mary But it was the son of God Come down from heaven To be with us The son of God With us A God that loved us so much That he wanted to be with us A God that wasn't too important for us To be Away on his own Not like a king

[35:17] That would live in his own palace And never speak to you But a God That wanted to Come to your home Come to have dinner with you almost A God that wants Wants to be there Right beside you And with you A God that you can call a friend Jesus is a friend to you God wants you To be part of his family Because God has a lot of things To share with us God has great things To share with us And God He didn't just send a car To tell us this He didn't He didn't just send an angel To tell us this He sent He sent his son To tell us That God wants To be with us He sent his son To die for us And the gospel of John Tells us something About this son

[36:17] And Fraser Is going to come up And tell us a little bit About this son This baby That came into the world For us John 3.16 Tells us For God Loved the world That he gave his only son That whoever believes in him Should not perish But have eternal life Thank you Wait there a minute Wait there a minute We all know Do we all know this verse?

[36:45] Have we heard it before? Yeah? Do you think we could say it together? Oh we've actually got it on the screen Yeah? Right After three One, two, three For God so loved the world That he gave his only son That whoever believes in him Should not perish But have eternal life Thank you very much God sent his son So that we can be with him Forever Forever Forever So I want you to remember When you're pulling your cracker This Christmas How great it is To be with everyone Family and your friends And it's a special time But when you're pulling it I want you to remember The name Emmanuel Which means God with us Yeah God with us

[37:45] And God sharing With us All that he has That we Can be with him In heaven Forever That's a special thing God has a lot To share with us The greatest gift We ever receive Is Jesus And if we believe in him We shall not perish But have everlasting life Everlasting life In heaven With him That's his name Emmanuel means God with us So we had Christ Which means Anyone remember Promised one Emmanuel means God with us Okay It's our second name Alright So we're going to sing now Before David comes back up To lead us in the last name

[38:46] And we're going to sing In hymn number 165 O come Come Emmanuel And ransom Captive Israel That mourns In lonely exile here Until The son of God Appear And we'll stand to sing After the introduction O come O come Emmanuel Emmanuel And ransom Captain Israel That mourns In lonely exile here

[39:48] Until the son of God Appear Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Emmanuel Emmanuel Shall come To thee O Israel O Israel O come O come O come The Lord Of might Who To thy To thy Thrives Sinai In Ancient Times In Ancient This Gave The Lord In God And Majesty And All Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice

[40:50] Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice shall come to thee, O Israel.

[41:04] O come, thou rod of Jesse, be free, thine own from Satan's tyranny, from decks of hell thy people.

[41:26] O come, thou rod of Jesse, bring calm and cheer, our spirits by thine adventier.

[42:09] Dispers the gloomy clouds of night, and death's dark shadows put to fight.

[42:25] Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

[42:39] O come, thou key of David, come, and open wide our heavenly home.

[42:56] Make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery.

[43:10] Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

[43:27] You're doing really well, girls and boys.

[43:38] I see you've been given a snack just to carry you through to the last point. It won't be that long, don't worry. So, can you remember? We're thinking about the names of the child that was born, and the first name that we were thinking about was the name?

[43:54] Christ. Christ. Christ. And what does that mean? Fraser? The promised one. And the second name that Scott was telling us about was the name?

[44:07] Henry? Emmanuel, which means? God with us. And the third name that we're thinking about is the name what?

[44:21] Fraser, you're working hard. Jesus. Jesus. Now, think about this, boys and girls. When a baby is born, or when a baby is soon to be born, Caroline from Sculpey, I think she's going to the hospital on Tuesday.

[44:43] She's almost at the time for the baby to be born. So, when a baby is born, or a baby is about to be born, who chooses the name of the baby? Finley?

[44:54] Mum. Mum. Okay. That's probably a very true word. Yeah, yeah. Mum and Dad, you would expect, but yeah, you're probably right, Finley.

[45:04] Just Mum. Maybe Granny as well, but... Now, who chose the name? Can you remember?

[45:16] Who chose the name for the baby that was promised to Mary and Joseph? Was it Mary the mum? Or was it Joseph? Yeah.

[45:29] Yeah. It was... It was God, wasn't it? It was God who chose the name. And it was God who sent the angels, the messengers, to tell Joseph.

[45:45] Joseph. Because back in these days, it was actually the dad that got to choose the name. Change days now, eh? Back in these days, the dad got to choose the name.

[45:56] So it was Joseph's job to go and choose and register the name. But God sent an angel to tell Joseph what the name would be. And Ailey's going to come out and read to us the passage from Matthew chapter 1 where we read about that happening.

[46:14] Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

[46:29] And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear, to take Mary as your wife.

[46:46] For that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. For he will save people from their sins. Thank you, Ely.

[46:59] So let's just think about this for a minute. Here's this man, Joseph. And Joseph, he loves this girl called Mary.

[47:10] And he's engaged to marry her. He's going to marry her. So we can imagine the hotel's booked, the dresses are chosen, all the arrangements, the invitations have gone out, everything's in order.

[47:23] Everybody knows about the wedding that's going to happen. And then he discovers one day that his wife-to-be, Mary, she's going to have a baby.

[47:36] And he knows that the baby has nothing to do with him. And so, Joseph is really sad. And Joseph is thinking to himself, he's thinking, well, you know, I can't marry, I can't marry Mary now.

[47:56] I can't trust her. The wedding's off. And so that's how Joseph's thinking. And then God sends an angel to Joseph and gives him this news.

[48:11] And the angel says to Joseph, you don't need to worry, Joseph. You can trust Mary. And you can marry her. And she will have a baby, a special baby.

[48:26] And this baby will be a gift from God, the Son of God. And you will call his name Jesus.

[48:42] Do you know what Jesus means? We've thought about Christ and Emmanuel. and what these names mean. Do you know what Jesus the name means? Michael? Saviour.

[48:54] Saviour. That's right. The name Jesus means saver. Now, when we think about somebody who saves, where do, boys especially, maybe I shouldn't say that, but yeah, I have said it already.

[49:13] When you think about somebody who saves, who do you think about or what do you think about? Boys?

[49:24] Michael? You think about a goalkeeper, don't you? So, I've got Michael's very fresh smelling goalkeeper's gloves here.

[49:37] I hope they're on your Christmas list and you pair. So, when we think about someone who saves, we think about a goalkeeper. So, they have the gloves on, they're in between the posts and the shots are coming in and the goalkeeper's job is to make the save.

[49:56] and a good goalkeeper will save his team from defeat, from getting beaten. A good goalkeeper will lead his team to victory, especially when there's a penalty shootout.

[50:14] The goalkeeper is there and he's the one who'll stop defeat and he'll lead them to victory. And you know, boys and girls, that's what Jesus has done for us.

[50:28] He's the saviour. We sang in the song just a moment ago, from depths of hell your people save and give them victory over the grave.

[50:45] And that's what Jesus did. So, how amazing is that? Think about that, boys and girls. We're finishing just now, so just think about this as we're finishing. How amazing is it that Jesus has done that for us?

[51:00] Jesus, he was born, as Scott was saying, God the Son. He didn't stay far away in heaven. He came all the way down to this world to be born and then he lived a perfect life.

[51:18] None of us can do that. He did it for us. And then Jesus, he went to the cross to die the death that my sins deserve.

[51:31] And he did that to be our saviour, to save us from sin. He saves us from sin.

[51:43] He saves us from death. death. How amazing is that news? Because every Christmas when we come together with our family and our friends, we love to have them around us, but we're always remembering as well, people who used to be with us, but they've gone from this world, they've died.

[52:03] died. But the promise that Jesus gives us is that if we're trusting in him, he takes them and he takes us through death. He beats death.

[52:15] death. And he gives us life that's everlasting. He gives us victory over the grave, is what the hymn says. He makes us his friends in this world, that we can have him as our friend, as our saviour.

[52:36] And if we're trusting in Jesus, he promises that he fits us for heaven. You sing that in the carol, don't you? He fits us for heaven. To live with him there.

[52:49] And boys and girls, last question for you. Why did Jesus do all that? Think about everything. Why did God send somebody to be the light?

[53:02] To be the Christ? Why did this baby that was born, why was there Emmanuel, God with us? Why was there a saviour? To take our sin away, to take us through death, to give us everlasting life?

[53:17] Why did he do all that for us? Go on, Michael. Because he loves us. None of this is complicated, is it?

[53:32] Boys and girls. And grey-headed boys and girls as well, and bald-headed boys and girls. None of this is complicated. all of you, I imagine, have heard this many times before, and yet it's the most amazing thing that you can ever hear.

[53:53] The fact that Jesus was born into this world to save us from death, to save us into everlasting life. The fact that the Christ was born to push away the darkness and flood in light, the amazing thing in the name of Emmanuel, the baby that was born, was God with us.

[54:23] And all of this happened because of the great love that God has for you. And maybe somebody here needs to hear that particularly this morning. God loves you.

[54:34] you might feel like other people don't love you. You may struggle as you think about yourself, but Christmas is a reminder that God loves you so much that he did all this for you.

[54:56] And he wants you to believe. He wants you to trust him. He wants you to know him. he wants you to spend today, every day he gives you in this world and then forever with him.

[55:12] And that's the promise that is in the middle of Christmas. So you're going to sing now, boys and girls, two songs. The first song is about the love of God.

[55:25] Jesus, baby, oh so small, crying in this little stall. you are born so I can know God is here and loves me so. Yes, Jesus loves me.

[55:36] And then you're going to sing a second song, a long time ago in a faraway land. And I think, congregation, are you going to join or are you just going to sing it yourselves? Just themselves.

[55:49] No singing, congregation. So boys and girls, I think you're going to get shown where to go and stand and we're going to look forward to hearing you sing these two carols.

[56:05] The second carol, you might not recognize it because it's not in any hymn books. It was written by a girl who's a friend of hers and she lives in Stornoway and she does the praise at the High Free Church.

[56:20] So Eleanor MacLeod, she wrote this second carol. But we'll hear the first one first. And I'll sit down and stop talking. Jesus made me all so small Crying in this catwalk You are born so I can know God is here and loves me so Yes Jesus loves me Yes Jesus loves me Yes Jesus loves me The Bible tells me so Christmas comes so I can see Jesus wants to live in me

[57:21] He He is with me! is with me all by all He is good and gentle kind and strong Yes Jesus loves me Yes Jesus loves me Yes Jesus loves me The Bible tells me so That was excellent thank you very much boys and girls I saw Farrakar taking notes I think he's got a few apprentice presenters on his list now Fraser you're going to get the first call A long time ago in a faraway land

[58:23] An angel told Mary that she'd have a son His name would be Jesus He'd tell the good news How you from heaven to save me and you Hear the angels sing Jesus is born See the shepherds come from fields afar Hear the angels sing Jesus is born See the wise men follow the star As we think of this baby boy who came from heaven to bring us joy We give our presence remembering him Jesus our saviour our friend and our king Hear the angels sing

[59:26] Jesus is born See the shepherds come from fields far Hear the angels sing Hear tells his born See the wise men follow the star Thank you very much boys and girls that was amazing last time the three names of the child that was born the first name was let's have some of these girls in the middle here the first name was Emily Christ and that means promised one and the next name was Emmanuel and that means God with us and the last name is

[60:29] Jesus which means Saviour okay excellent let's pray and let's thank God for who he is and all that he's done for us Lord God we thank you for the amazing message of Christmas we thank you for these names that were given to the child that was born he was he is the Christ the promised one the one who came to chase away the darkness of sin and the devil and death we thank you that he came to be the light the light of the world the one who brings light into every life that follows him that trusts him and we thank you that the child was called Emmanuel which means God with us how amazing the son of God with us in this world we thank you that Jesus came into this world to be with us and still today he's with us he promised he would never leave us or forsake us so wherever we go whatever we're doing whether it's daytime or the middle of the night when we're scared sometimes not knowing what thing to do we thank you that we can pray and know that you are hearing us and that you are with us and we thank you to you from the earliest years of our lives all the way through life and we pray now that you would continue with us and be close to us in the rest of this day help us to worship you and to remember it's your day a day that we've been given to spend time with you and we ask all this in

[62:42] Jesus name Amen we're going to sing now the final praise maybe just before we sing I want to thank the boys and girls for coming along each week through the year and thank the mums and dads and those who bring them grannies and different people who bring the boys and girls along thank you for taking them and to the Sunday school teachers who work our way week by week thank you for all that you do as well and we know that God will take all these messages sometimes you might think nobody's hearing but he can take them and use them all through life and so thank you for all who are serving God in different ways we're going to sing now to God's glory we're going to sing the final of the final carol for today hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king peace on earth hark the herald angels sing glory to a newborn king peace on earth and mercy mild god and sinners reconciled joyful all ye nations rise join the triumph of the sky with angelic hosts proclaim

[64:29] Christ is born in Beth we heaven hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king Christ my highest heaven adore Christ the everlasting Lord late in time behold!

[65:04] come! heaven! Hail the flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity.

[65:20] Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.

[65:30] Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King.

[65:43] Hail the heaven, Lord Prince of Peace, hail the star of righteousness.

[65:54] Light and light to all he brings, risked with healing in his wings.

[66:06] Mild he lays his glory by, born that man no more may die.

[66:17] Born to raise the sons of land, born to give them second birth.

[66:28] Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King.

[66:39] And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit be with us all this day, this Christmas time, and forevermore.

[66:54] Amen.