We come before you tonight, and Lord, you are the God of the season.

We are so busy as a people, and we go about so much trying to make it Christmas,

and the house looks like Christmas, and the sounds look like Christmas,

and we're wearing our Christmas sweater or our colors or

whatever it is. And we can get so caught up in it all that we wind up missing time with you.

You are Christmas. You are the Christ. And we celebrate the greatest celebration

there could have never been a good Friday

there could have never been a Palm Sunday

and there could never been a resurrection Sunday morning

without Christmas

and so Father God as we start tonight

and this coming Sunday and then next week, together as a family, here in this gathering, we just stop to praise you and to honor you and, Lord, to thank you that you are the God that is so deep in all that you do that what you have

revealed to us has just scratched the surface of what we'll be teaching and thinking about

this week and that is you are the God that is beyond.

Awesome God.

So we praise you and thank you.

Teach us now, Holy Spirit.

We pray in Jesus' name and all God's people said.

Amen.

So church family, let's stand if you would. We are going to kick off our special Christmas sermons that are going to be leading up to our Christmas service next week.

And really the theme of it is beyond.

Beyond.

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