I'm really excited to be here. Like I said, my name is Gage Henry. And this is a great day to preach because everybody's just smiling today.

Everybody looks happy today. So Merry Christmas.

Okay, there it is. All right. We're happy now. All right. Smiling's my favorite elf.

Okay, I'm excited to be able to preach to you guys today because I believe that God has something

to say to each and every individual here. And the last time we were in this room was actually last

week. And the Christmas play happened on this stage. So give it up for the kids team and the

Christmas play. They pulled it off. They're actually watching it over there. And I've learned

that my new role and being a father is to actually watch the kid outside of the event. So there's like a crew of dads. We were out there. And it was funny to watch like literally I saw three sheep like take off, like little kids, like take off across the lobby and like a poor college kid chasing him with his like shepherd's hat on. Like, oh no. I'm'm like at least we're biblical right like this makes

sense that is great to watch a christmas play and I thought to start off this moment together

I would show you a picture of my family at our own very Christmas play that we would do a tradition

and it's funny because they're all sitting in the front row right now and thank god Tyler you got some

contacts am I right, there he is.

Okay, making sure he's behind me.

And so that's my family. And that's what we would do. We'd have this moment where we'd do a nativity scene where we talk about Jesus. And I remember why we have Christmas. And so this is a picture of what, you can take it down. It's kind of scaring me from behind looking at you, the back corner. but for me like that's kind of like, right? And there's so many traditions that you probably have in your own life. And I feel like Christmas, if we're really honest, is this competing reality with like our life where all of a sudden I'm supposed to be super excited and happy and joyful, but I still have all the stress and the anxiety of the end of the year and work and all the other pressures that I feel on myself. And at the same time, it's like I'm supposed to somehow reconcile

some of the most painful, broken situations and then celebrate at the same time. And even it could be

your family. Your family could drive you nuts. And you're supposed to like enjoy this nostalgic

moment when maybe the only thing you can think about is the fact that certain

people aren't there. And so I show this picture up here because not only do we need to attach

our peace to the promises of God, but this picture means something different than what you maybe

think. You can put it back up on the screen. I mean, I'm a young kid that's me on top,

the awesome headband, Tarzan in the Christmas story.

And it's a moment where I'm very innocent, right?

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