December 19, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode of Church Talk, we dive into why Christmas is worth celebrating despite its complicated history. The conversation focuses on separating truth from tradition—choosing to honor the birth of Jesus Christ while rejecting myths, lies, and occult or pagan elements often tied to the holiday. We explore the theological importance of Christ’s birth as the foundation for His death, burial, and resurrection, and discuss redeeming the day by centering it on truth, family, and faith rather than cultural distortions. Ultimately, this episode challenges listeners to intentionally celebrate Jesus and reclaim Christmas for its true meaning.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Thank you for joining us today on Church Talk.
Today we are going to be talkingabout why I celebrate Christmas.
All. Right.
(00:25):
Here we are. We're here again.
Back in the studio. Back in the studio it.
Missed a week? Almost Christmas.
It is police now. We died.
That's what the sheep said on December the 25th.
At least not be die. At least not.
(00:48):
Be fleece. Alrighty then.
Well. Now that everyone is overtaken
with laughter. Yeah, we'll give them a second
to. Yeah, we'll let y'all take a
second to breathe. You got anything to plug?
Well, just the usual Be sure to like, comment, tell us Merry
(01:13):
Christmas. I don't know.
Yeah, type something. Yeah, yeah, something drop it in
there in the comments somewhere.Quit scrolling.
Stop. Yeah, and like the video type a
little comment all, all you haveto do is an emoji.
It's all it takes. Yeah, it doesn't take any any of
your time. Easy, this is for you.
(01:34):
Instagram TikTok. When this reel hits, stop and
like it. Yeah, share it.
It's just us telling you to likeand share it.
Like and share it. Comment on it.
Yeah. Quit being a freeloader,
Subscribe and leave a review. Yes.
(01:58):
If you don't have anything good to say, say something good
anyway. That's.
What I always say, we're talkingabout the different opinions
around the holiday, what we callChristmas because.
There's a lot of. Those, there's a lot of it.
(02:18):
You know, obviously Christmas isthe is the conjoining of the two
words Christmas, which is a a Catholic word.
Yeah, we are not Catholics. Praise God you.
Know, But you know, I think, I think that a day in celebration
(02:40):
of the birth of Jesus Christ is never a bad thing.
I think, I think if you spend too much time dwelling on the
paganism of the day, that's whenit becomes perverted.
Yeah, there. I mean, there's a lot behind
Christmas that like most people don't even know about the
(03:02):
paganism behind it. It's somebody that has to bring
it out and say, well, look at this, there's all of this.
Well, I just, I thought Jesus was born and I thought we were
celebrating Jesus. Most people don't don't even see
further than that. Well, you know, there are, there
are some parts of the holiday that I don't think are
(03:23):
redeemable. Yeah.
You know, that there's things that have ties to the occult
and, you know, that kind of stuff that I don't think is
something we need to be a part of things that if it's, if it's
a lie, I don't want to be a partof it.
You know, I don't tell my kids that Santa Claus brought their
(03:44):
gifts. I brought their gifts.
And if I'll lie to them about Santa Claus until they're
thirteen years old, how can I tell them that I'm telling them
the truth when I tell them aboutJesus?
Yeah, that's a good point. And so I think we leave the lies
(04:04):
out and, and try our best to focus on the truth that leave
the occultic type things out like the Elf on the Shelf and
that kind of stuff and, and focus on the real meaning of the
holiday. And that is that a, a baby came
(04:28):
through the womb of a virgin Godrobed himself in flesh and was
born. The important thing is, is that
he died, was buried and rose again.
He could not do all that withoutbeing without being born.
And so he he, he decided to come, instead of coming as a
(04:54):
king on the back of a stallion riding in to take authority over
the oppressors of the people of Israel, he decided to come lowly
in a stable laid in a Manger. And because of that he was able
to grow, be tempted in all points like we are yet without
(05:17):
sin, then be captured, arrested,beaten, bleed, be hanged on a
cross, die for our sins, buried and rose again.
And out of that we are have the opportunity to obey the gospel,
which is the death, burial and resurrection, repentance,
(05:38):
baptism in Jesus name, the info of the Holy Ghost.
All of that is made possible by his birth.
And so it's something that I want to celebrate and I
celebrate it every day, but I don't think that it's a, a
problem for me to take a day outof the year with my family and
(06:01):
to really celebrate his birth. And my, my, my real issue with,
you know, I, I understand the Pagan roots to and ties to
different things around the holiday.
My thing is, is everything in our society today has Pagan
(06:24):
roots attached to it. Yeah.
Yeah, They do everything. Birthdays and well.
So the days of the week are Pagan.
The months of the year are Pagan.
Like, you know, we don't. Yeah.
Nike tennis shoes. It's it's Pagan.
(06:48):
A lot of our brands come from when you drink Starbucks, it's a
Pagan symbol. I hope you're not.
Drinking Starbucks over a Calico?
OH. My goodness gracious, a lot.
It's a. Little plug there.
I've never touched this stuff. So, so everything, you know,
(07:14):
there's paganism attached to Easter and we don't do the
Easter Bunny. So, but people, people would
redeem like, like like you, you mentioned birthdays, birthdays,
(07:40):
the candles on the birthday, birthday cake is a Pagan thing.
It has Pagan roots. And so I I would see people that
would redeem a day to celebrate themselves, but would make no
effort to redeem a day to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Yeah, that's an issue. That is a that is a problem in
(08:04):
my opinion. That is a That is a deep
problem. And so I would rather take a
day, take the use the effort that some take to pervert the
day and take that same effort toredeem the day in order to have
a day to celebrate Jesus Christ.No, I don't think anyone can
(08:27):
deny that the the Christmas season, there's a little bit of
a spirit of joy and generosity there is that they're just there
just is not attached to any other holiday.
People are nicer, yes. Everybody's leaving saying oh,
(08:49):
Merry Christmas, happy holidays,something.
They're more willing to give, they're more willing to be
generous to others. They're more willing to to to
get involved in philanthropy anddifferent efforts during the
Christmas holiday than any othertime of the year.
I think that's, I think there's something to be said about that.
(09:11):
You know, obviously we understand that Jesus was not
born on December the 25th. He was most likely born
somewhere around September, October, around the Feast of
Tabernacles. Some believe around the end of
spring, but it definitely wasn'tin the winter time.
(09:32):
The shepherds did not have theirsheep in the fields during the
December months. It was too cold and and rainy
and wet and so they would have the sheep in out of the fields.
So we we know it's not that day,but we don't know what day it
(09:53):
was. And so we we have decided to
take that day to celebrate the greatest birth that ever
happened. Yes.
And so, you know, there's there's the talk about, you
(10:13):
know, well, you know, there's the paganism attached to like
the Yule log and all this kind of stuff.
Well, if you've ever eaten a Little Debbie Swiss, roll my.
God, I'm guilty. That is the modern, the modern
version of the Yule log Society quit burning the Yule log
(10:37):
because the fireplaces got smaller and they couldn't fit
the Yule log anymore, and so they started with that.
Much less Santa, yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So they couldn't get the Yule log into the fireplace.
And so they started baking theselogs, rolled up cakes, and they
got smaller and smaller and smaller.
(10:58):
And then you wind up with the, the Swiss roll and that, yeah,
you're eating paganism when you,when you eat it.
So, you know, the, the, the treesituation, the pagans would they
(11:23):
viewed the Evergreen tree as a symbol of fertility, of life, of
life in the darkest time of the year, the winter months where
everything else was dead. There was this symbol of life
there. And then they, you know, people
(11:45):
get strung out and bent out of shape over the perverted
aspects. And I'm not going to go into
that because I don't, I don't want to give glory to it.
But there there was some very perverted symbolism that the
pagans attach to the Evergreen tree.
(12:06):
Well, for one thing, I don't want to.
I don't want my, I don't want those things in my kids.
Mind. Yeah, Yeah, there's no sense of
even talking about that. So I, I don't want to talk about
perverted things with my children.
So, so how do I, how do I redeemthat?
Well, God has something to say about the Evergreen tree
(12:30):
himself. And I want to just go ahead and
tell you, news flash, God is theone that created the fir tree,
not the pagans. It's his tree.
It's not their tree. This, this Evergreen, the every
Evergreen tree in the forest wascreated by God himself, not the
(12:54):
pagans. So I don't care what they what.
Through the years, a Pagan has attributed to this tree.
It belongs to God, and so the Bible tells us.
Let's look at Isaiah 55 and 10. Says For as the rain cometh down
and the snow from heaven, and return not thither, but water
(13:19):
the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give
seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be
that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereunto I sent it. For you shall go out with joy,
(13:41):
and be LED forth with peace. The mountains and the hills
shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees
of the field shall clap their hands instead of the thorn shall
come up the. Fir tree.
And instead of the briar shall come up with the Myrtle tree,
and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign
(14:01):
that shall not be cut off. And so this tree is God's tree,
and it is a symbol not of whatever sadistic, perverted
mess that the pagans have attached to it.
God said this tree is a symbol of my word.
Yes, it's an everlasting. Sign.
And it is an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.
(14:26):
And so when I, when my children and I set up our Christmas tree,
we're not setting up our Christmas tree and talking about
some sadistic, perverted Pagan ritual that happened around a
tree like this. I'm setting it up and teaching
my children. Look, when God created this
(14:49):
tree, this is what he had to sayabout it.
This is a symbol that heaven andearth may pass away, but his
word will not pass away. Just like the, the, the fir tree
and the Myrtle tree and every other Evergreen tree, the cedar
tree, that, that that lives wheneverything else is dead.
(15:14):
I want you to remember that God's Word, no matter what's
going on around you, will stand,and there will be life in His
Word. Yeah, it's an important sign to
have. You better believe it is.
We're not we we don't throw it up in the living room to worship
it. Yeah, I've never bowed before my
tree in worship time. Before my tree.
(15:38):
But I can look at that tree every time I get up in the
morning and know when I know what it means.
Yes, when I know that this is a symbol of God's Word and an
everlasting covenant. Just like I look at the rainbow
and can know that that's a promise from God, I can look at
this tree and know God's given me a promise.
I I don't want to allow pagans to steal what is God's.
(16:02):
This is God's earth. This is God's creation.
And and so I'm I am reclaiming every time I set my tree up and
I talk to my children about whatit not what it mean.
I don't talk to them about what it means to the pagans.
(16:24):
I'm not Pagan. I talk to them about what it
means to God because I'm a Christian, right?
And so when you know, people IIA100% get the fact that people
have lost their minds when it comes to the materialism
(16:45):
attached to Christmas. You know, we're we're buying
things for for spoiled brats that they don't deserve, that
they've not worked for that theydon't appreciate.
That's broken into hours, you know, And so, OK, that's the way
the world operates. What does what does the church
(17:06):
do? And so at at our Place, we teach
our children that if you're going to get gifts for
Christmas, you've got to give things away.
Nothing's free. Well, it's not just that
nothing's free, it's that it's God blesses an open hand he.
(17:26):
Does, yes. And so does your parents.
Yeah, that's good. And so when I, when I, I, I want
my children to grow up knowing that their daddy wants to give
them the best that life has to offer.
But at the same time, the way for their to get their dad to
(17:48):
want to give to them is for their hands to continuously be
open. And so the, the old dusty toys
that I played with for a month that I got last year, it's got
to go so that something else cantake its place.
(18:08):
Yes. And it it builds into your your
child's life, the the muscle of being generous and understanding
that the way to get is to give. Yeah.
(18:29):
Give and it shall be given good measure, pressed down, shaken
together and running over. There's nothing that makes me
want to do for my children like seeing them want to give to
someone else. Yes.
When I see my child take their favorite teddy bear or their
favorite action figure and say, you know what, Daddy?
(18:49):
I think I'm going to give this to one of my buddies at church
or I'm going to give this to oneof my friends at school.
They don't have very many toys. I'm like, OK, I don't know what
my budget is for Christmas this year and I'm fixing check and
I'm going to get them whatever I.
Can yes. And you want to build a
(19:13):
atmosphere in your family of children who are generous and
understand that, you know, generosity is the most fun that
you will have with stuff. Yeah, Dave Ramsey said.
(19:38):
The funnest time you'll ever have with your money is when you
give it away. Yeah, The most fun you have with
money is when you give it that. That's that's very true.
And it comes, it goes with everything, with anything.
You know, the kids don't have money.
The way they learn to give is with stuff.
Toys are currency to them, yeah.Yeah, absolutely.
(20:01):
So that that's, that's been a practice of ours for years.
And then also, you know. Our family likes to find a
family in need and and make surethat our children participate in
it. And we give a family a Christmas
(20:21):
that they couldn't get on their own.
And we do that not because we want to, you know, be somebody.
We were that family just just 10years ago that couldn't afford
to pay attention. You know, we were that family
that, you know, if, if somebody didn't bless us, we couldn't
(20:45):
have Christmas either. And so it is so awesome for God
to put you in a position to where you can turn around and do
for others what has been done for you.
I think it's the important part of of redeeming the day is when
(21:07):
you actually get the focus and the perspective on God and his
nature, and it gives you the opportunity to do these things.
And I love the time of year because everybody is in that
frame of mind. Yeah, it it's the one time where
almost universally, the world and the church just have a
(21:28):
generous point of view. Yeah, yeah, it's true.
So well. You know, I, I want, when my
children look at any day, to look at it in a way that is
pleasing to God. I don't want them to look at
(21:51):
anything in life and attribute some sort of weird backwoods,
you know, mountain man perverted.
(22:11):
I, I, I don't want them to have those things in their mind,
period. Yeah, when I, when my children
look at creation or they look ata day or they look at a holiday
or whatever, I want them to see Jesus in that day.
I want them to see the purpose of God in that day.
You know, you that's a that's another aspect of this.
(22:33):
And we can, we can end with this.
But another aspect of this is there is so much symbolism tied
to the birth of Jesus, and in inBethlehem in particular, that I
(22:54):
would rather my children hear about those things than me to
explain to them why Santa is satanic.
Yeah. My kids are 1310 and six and
they never ask about Santa Claus.
(23:16):
We've never done Santa Claus andthey never ask about Santa
Claus. So it's a non issue because we
don't bring it up. We teach them the truth about
these things. We teach them that the tree is a
sign of the everlasting word of God.
We teach them about stewardship and generosity.
(23:38):
Stewardship is another thing that goes out the window during
Christmas, and I don't think it should.
Christmas comes the same day every year, and you shouldn't
have to take out a bunch of debtto do Christmas.
Start planting in January. Put.
It in the. Budget.
Put it in the budget and then you don't have to.
(23:59):
You don't have to make it a a stewardship flaw or failure
every year and go into debt and pay for it until July.
Yeah, right. To have a good Christmas with
your family, just just plan for it.
And so anyway, then there's Bethlehem.
(24:22):
Every every Jewish word has a numerical equivalent.
So the numerical equivalent of the word Bethlehem is the #470
Well, 470 is the numerical equivalent of the word
(24:48):
forgiveness. And so I want to teach my kids
that out of Bethlehem came the greatest act of forgiveness
known to mankind. And when I celebrate Christmas
with my family, I want it to be a reminder to all of us.
(25:14):
Whoever has wronged us, let's forgive them.
Yes. That's good.
Whoever has, you know, falsely accused us this year, whoever's
run our family name down, whoever's dragged our family
name through the mud, whoever's walked out on us or desert,
deserted us or talked bad about us on social media or, you know,
(25:38):
made videos about us or whatever.
I want at Christmas time to sit down with my family under that
everlasting symbol of the word of God that will never fail and
remind them there's a there is aeverlasting truth that God
(26:00):
Forgives those that forgive. And out of Bethlehem not only
came a neat story that we tell and we put up a cute little
nativity scene about, but out ofthat town came the greatest act
of forgiveness. And if God forgave me of all of
my sins and was willing to shed his blood for my salvation, then
(26:27):
I can forgive those that have mistreated me and talked about
me and done me wrong over the past year.
And I can set myself up for a brand new start the beginning of
the next year. So that's why I celebrate
(26:48):
Christmas and and I pray that this holiday season you will
have a blessed Christmas, that everything that you wanted is
under the tree. And.
And that you participated in thethe wonderful Christian
(27:12):
discipline of generosity. And that you teach your family
that His Word lasts forever and that forgiveness heals the mind
and the soul. God bless you and musicians
come.
Thank you for joining us today on Church Talk.
Today we are going to be talkingabout why I celebrate Christmas.
All. Right.
(00:25):
Here we are. We're here again.
Back in the studio. Back in the studio it.
Missed a week? Almost Christmas.
It is police now. We died.
That's what the sheep said on December the 25th.
At least not be die. At least not.
(00:48):
Be fleece. Alrighty then.
Well. Now that everyone is overtaken
with laughter. Yeah, we'll give them a second
to. Yeah, we'll let y'all take a
second to breathe. You got anything to plug?
Well, just the usual Be sure to like, comment, tell us Merry
(01:13):
Christmas. I don't know.
Yeah, type something. Yeah, yeah, something drop it in
there in the comments somewhere.Quit scrolling.
Stop. Yeah, and like the video type a
little comment all, all you haveto do is an emoji.
It's all it takes. Yeah, it doesn't take any any of
your time. Easy, this is for you.
(01:34):
Instagram TikTok. When this reel hits, stop and
like it. Yeah, share it.
It's just us telling you to likeand share it.
Like and share it. Comment on it.
Yeah. Quit being a freeloader,
Subscribe and leave a review. Yes.
(01:58):
If you don't have anything good to say, say something good
anyway. That's.
What I always say, we're talkingabout the different opinions
around the holiday, what we callChristmas because.
There's a lot of. Those, there's a lot of it.
(02:18):
You know, obviously Christmas isthe is the conjoining of the two
words Christmas, which is a a Catholic word.
Yeah, we are not Catholics. Praise God you.
Know, But you know, I think, I think that a day in celebration
(02:40):
of the birth of Jesus Christ is never a bad thing.
I think, I think if you spend too much time dwelling on the
paganism of the day, that's whenit becomes perverted.
Yeah, there. I mean, there's a lot behind
Christmas that like most people don't even know about the
(03:02):
paganism behind it. It's somebody that has to bring
it out and say, well, look at this, there's all of this.
Well, I just, I thought Jesus was born and I thought we were
celebrating Jesus. Most people don't don't even see
further than that. Well, you know, there are, there
are some parts of the holiday that I don't think are
(03:23):
redeemable. Yeah.
You know, that there's things that have ties to the occult
and, you know, that kind of stuff that I don't think is
something we need to be a part of things that if it's, if it's
a lie, I don't want to be a partof it.
You know, I don't tell my kids that Santa Claus brought their
(03:44):
gifts. I brought their gifts.
And if I'll lie to them about Santa Claus until they're
thirteen years old, how can I tell them that I'm telling them
the truth when I tell them aboutJesus?
Yeah, that's a good point. And so I think we leave the lies
(04:04):
out and, and try our best to focus on the truth that leave
the occultic type things out like the Elf on the Shelf and
that kind of stuff and, and focus on the real meaning of the
holiday. And that is that a, a baby came
(04:28):
through the womb of a virgin Godrobed himself in flesh and was
born. The important thing is, is that
he died, was buried and rose again.
He could not do all that withoutbeing without being born.
And so he he, he decided to come, instead of coming as a
(04:54):
king on the back of a stallion riding in to take authority over
the oppressors of the people of Israel, he decided to come lowly
in a stable laid in a Manger. And because of that he was able
to grow, be tempted in all points like we are yet without
(05:17):
sin, then be captured, arrested,beaten, bleed, be hanged on a
cross, die for our sins, buried and rose again.
And out of that we are have the opportunity to obey the gospel,
which is the death, burial and resurrection, repentance,
(05:38):
baptism in Jesus name, the info of the Holy Ghost.
All of that is made possible by his birth.
And so it's something that I want to celebrate and I
celebrate it every day, but I don't think that it's a, a
problem for me to take a day outof the year with my family and
(06:01):
to really celebrate his birth. And my, my, my real issue with,
you know, I, I understand the Pagan roots to and ties to
different things around the holiday.
My thing is, is everything in our society today has Pagan
(06:24):
roots attached to it. Yeah.
Yeah, They do everything. Birthdays and well.
So the days of the week are Pagan.
The months of the year are Pagan.
Like, you know, we don't. Yeah.
Nike tennis shoes. It's it's Pagan.
(06:48):
A lot of our brands come from when you drink Starbucks, it's a
Pagan symbol. I hope you're not.
Drinking Starbucks over a Calico?
OH. My goodness gracious, a lot.
It's a. Little plug there.
I've never touched this stuff. So, so everything, you know,
(07:14):
there's paganism attached to Easter and we don't do the
Easter Bunny. So, but people, people would
redeem like, like like you, you mentioned birthdays, birthdays,
(07:40):
the candles on the birthday, birthday cake is a Pagan thing.
It has Pagan roots. And so I I would see people that
would redeem a day to celebrate themselves, but would make no
effort to redeem a day to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Yeah, that's an issue. That is a that is a problem in
(08:04):
my opinion. That is a That is a deep
problem. And so I would rather take a
day, take the use the effort that some take to pervert the
day and take that same effort toredeem the day in order to have
a day to celebrate Jesus Christ.No, I don't think anyone can
(08:27):
deny that the the Christmas season, there's a little bit of
a spirit of joy and generosity there is that they're just there
just is not attached to any other holiday.
People are nicer, yes. Everybody's leaving saying oh,
(08:49):
Merry Christmas, happy holidays,something.
They're more willing to give, they're more willing to be
generous to others. They're more willing to to to
get involved in philanthropy anddifferent efforts during the
Christmas holiday than any othertime of the year.
I think that's, I think there's something to be said about that.
(09:11):
You know, obviously we understand that Jesus was not
born on December the 25th. He was most likely born
somewhere around September, October, around the Feast of
Tabernacles. Some believe around the end of
spring, but it definitely wasn'tin the winter time.
(09:32):
The shepherds did not have theirsheep in the fields during the
December months. It was too cold and and rainy
and wet and so they would have the sheep in out of the fields.
So we we know it's not that day,but we don't know what day it
(09:53):
was. And so we we have decided to
take that day to celebrate the greatest birth that ever
happened. Yes.
And so, you know, there's there's the talk about, you
(10:13):
know, well, you know, there's the paganism attached to like
the Yule log and all this kind of stuff.
Well, if you've ever eaten a Little Debbie Swiss, roll my.
God, I'm guilty. That is the modern, the modern
version of the Yule log Society quit burning the Yule log
(10:37):
because the fireplaces got smaller and they couldn't fit
the Yule log anymore, and so they started with that.
Much less Santa, yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So they couldn't get the Yule log into the fireplace.
And so they started baking theselogs, rolled up cakes, and they
got smaller and smaller and smaller.
(10:58):
And then you wind up with the, the Swiss roll and that, yeah,
you're eating paganism when you,when you eat it.
So, you know, the, the, the treesituation, the pagans would they
(11:23):
viewed the Evergreen tree as a symbol of fertility, of life, of
life in the darkest time of the year, the winter months where
everything else was dead. There was this symbol of life
there. And then they, you know, people
(11:45):
get strung out and bent out of shape over the perverted
aspects. And I'm not going to go into
that because I don't, I don't want to give glory to it.
But there there was some very perverted symbolism that the
pagans attach to the Evergreen tree.
(12:06):
Well, for one thing, I don't want to.
I don't want my, I don't want those things in my kids.
Mind. Yeah, Yeah, there's no sense of
even talking about that. So I, I don't want to talk about
perverted things with my children.
So, so how do I, how do I redeemthat?
Well, God has something to say about the Evergreen tree
(12:30):
himself. And I want to just go ahead and
tell you, news flash, God is theone that created the fir tree,
not the pagans. It's his tree.
It's not their tree. This, this Evergreen, the every
Evergreen tree in the forest wascreated by God himself, not the
(12:54):
pagans. So I don't care what they what.
Through the years, a Pagan has attributed to this tree.
It belongs to God, and so the Bible tells us.
Let's look at Isaiah 55 and 10. Says For as the rain cometh down
and the snow from heaven, and return not thither, but water
(13:19):
the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give
seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be
that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereunto I sent it. For you shall go out with joy,
(13:41):
and be LED forth with peace. The mountains and the hills
shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees
of the field shall clap their hands instead of the thorn shall
come up the. Fir tree.
And instead of the briar shall come up with the Myrtle tree,
and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign
(14:01):
that shall not be cut off. And so this tree is God's tree,
and it is a symbol not of whatever sadistic, perverted
mess that the pagans have attached to it.
God said this tree is a symbol of my word.
Yes, it's an everlasting. Sign.
And it is an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.
(14:26):
And so when I, when my children and I set up our Christmas tree,
we're not setting up our Christmas tree and talking about
some sadistic, perverted Pagan ritual that happened around a
tree like this. I'm setting it up and teaching
my children. Look, when God created this
(14:49):
tree, this is what he had to sayabout it.
This is a symbol that heaven andearth may pass away, but his
word will not pass away. Just like the, the, the fir tree
and the Myrtle tree and every other Evergreen tree, the cedar
tree, that, that that lives wheneverything else is dead.
(15:14):
I want you to remember that God's Word, no matter what's
going on around you, will stand,and there will be life in His
Word. Yeah, it's an important sign to
have. You better believe it is.
We're not we we don't throw it up in the living room to worship
it. Yeah, I've never bowed before my
tree in worship time. Before my tree.
(15:38):
But I can look at that tree every time I get up in the
morning and know when I know what it means.
Yes, when I know that this is a symbol of God's Word and an
everlasting covenant. Just like I look at the rainbow
and can know that that's a promise from God, I can look at
this tree and know God's given me a promise.
I I don't want to allow pagans to steal what is God's.
(16:02):
This is God's earth. This is God's creation.
And and so I'm I am reclaiming every time I set my tree up and
I talk to my children about whatit not what it mean.
I don't talk to them about what it means to the pagans.
(16:24):
I'm not Pagan. I talk to them about what it
means to God because I'm a Christian, right?
And so when you know, people IIA100% get the fact that people
have lost their minds when it comes to the materialism
(16:45):
attached to Christmas. You know, we're we're buying
things for for spoiled brats that they don't deserve, that
they've not worked for that theydon't appreciate.
That's broken into hours, you know, And so, OK, that's the way
the world operates. What does what does the church
(17:06):
do? And so at at our Place, we teach
our children that if you're going to get gifts for
Christmas, you've got to give things away.
Nothing's free. Well, it's not just that
nothing's free, it's that it's God blesses an open hand he.
(17:26):
Does, yes. And so does your parents.
Yeah, that's good. And so when I, when I, I, I want
my children to grow up knowing that their daddy wants to give
them the best that life has to offer.
But at the same time, the way for their to get their dad to
(17:48):
want to give to them is for their hands to continuously be
open. And so the, the old dusty toys
that I played with for a month that I got last year, it's got
to go so that something else cantake its place.
(18:08):
Yes. And it it builds into your your
child's life, the the muscle of being generous and understanding
that the way to get is to give. Yeah.
(18:29):
Give and it shall be given good measure, pressed down, shaken
together and running over. There's nothing that makes me
want to do for my children like seeing them want to give to
someone else. Yes.
When I see my child take their favorite teddy bear or their
favorite action figure and say, you know what, Daddy?
(18:49):
I think I'm going to give this to one of my buddies at church
or I'm going to give this to oneof my friends at school.
They don't have very many toys. I'm like, OK, I don't know what
my budget is for Christmas this year and I'm fixing check and
I'm going to get them whatever I.
Can yes. And you want to build a
(19:13):
atmosphere in your family of children who are generous and
understand that, you know, generosity is the most fun that
you will have with stuff. Yeah, Dave Ramsey said.
(19:38):
The funnest time you'll ever have with your money is when you
give it away. Yeah, The most fun you have with
money is when you give it that. That's that's very true.
And it comes, it goes with everything, with anything.
You know, the kids don't have money.
The way they learn to give is with stuff.
Toys are currency to them, yeah.Yeah, absolutely.
(20:01):
So that that's, that's been a practice of ours for years.
And then also, you know. Our family likes to find a
family in need and and make surethat our children participate in
it. And we give a family a Christmas
(20:21):
that they couldn't get on their own.
And we do that not because we want to, you know, be somebody.
We were that family just just 10years ago that couldn't afford
to pay attention. You know, we were that family
that, you know, if, if somebody didn't bless us, we couldn't
(20:45):
have Christmas either. And so it is so awesome for God
to put you in a position to where you can turn around and do
for others what has been done for you.
I think it's the important part of of redeeming the day is when
(21:07):
you actually get the focus and the perspective on God and his
nature, and it gives you the opportunity to do these things.
And I love the time of year because everybody is in that
frame of mind. Yeah, it it's the one time where
almost universally, the world and the church just have a
(21:28):
generous point of view. Yeah, yeah, it's true.
So well. You know, I, I want, when my
children look at any day, to look at it in a way that is
pleasing to God. I don't want them to look at
(21:51):
anything in life and attribute some sort of weird backwoods,
you know, mountain man perverted.
(22:11):
I, I, I don't want them to have those things in their mind,
period. Yeah, when I, when my children
look at creation or they look ata day or they look at a holiday
or whatever, I want them to see Jesus in that day.
I want them to see the purpose of God in that day.
You know, you that's a that's another aspect of this.
(22:33):
And we can, we can end with this.
But another aspect of this is there is so much symbolism tied
to the birth of Jesus, and in inBethlehem in particular, that I
(22:54):
would rather my children hear about those things than me to
explain to them why Santa is satanic.
Yeah. My kids are 1310 and six and
they never ask about Santa Claus.
(23:16):
We've never done Santa Claus andthey never ask about Santa
Claus. So it's a non issue because we
don't bring it up. We teach them the truth about
these things. We teach them that the tree is a
sign of the everlasting word of God.
We teach them about stewardship and generosity.
(23:38):
Stewardship is another thing that goes out the window during
Christmas, and I don't think it should.
Christmas comes the same day every year, and you shouldn't
have to take out a bunch of debtto do Christmas.
Start planting in January. Put.
It in the. Budget.
Put it in the budget and then you don't have to.
(23:59):
You don't have to make it a a stewardship flaw or failure
every year and go into debt and pay for it until July.
Yeah, right. To have a good Christmas with
your family, just just plan for it.
And so anyway, then there's Bethlehem.
(24:22):
Every every Jewish word has a numerical equivalent.
So the numerical equivalent of the word Bethlehem is the #470
Well, 470 is the numerical equivalent of the word
(24:48):
forgiveness. And so I want to teach my kids
that out of Bethlehem came the greatest act of forgiveness
known to mankind. And when I celebrate Christmas
with my family, I want it to be a reminder to all of us.
(25:14):
Whoever has wronged us, let's forgive them.
Yes. That's good.
Whoever has, you know, falsely accused us this year, whoever's
run our family name down, whoever's dragged our family
name through the mud, whoever's walked out on us or desert,
deserted us or talked bad about us on social media or, you know,
(25:38):
made videos about us or whatever.
I want at Christmas time to sit down with my family under that
everlasting symbol of the word of God that will never fail and
remind them there's a there is aeverlasting truth that God
(26:00):
Forgives those that forgive. And out of Bethlehem not only
came a neat story that we tell and we put up a cute little
nativity scene about, but out ofthat town came the greatest act
of forgiveness. And if God forgave me of all of
my sins and was willing to shed his blood for my salvation, then
(26:27):
I can forgive those that have mistreated me and talked about
me and done me wrong over the past year.
And I can set myself up for a brand new start the beginning of
the next year. So that's why I celebrate
(26:48):
Christmas and and I pray that this holiday season you will
have a blessed Christmas, that everything that you wanted is
under the tree. And.
And that you participated in thethe wonderful Christian
(27:12):
discipline of generosity. And that you teach your family
that His Word lasts forever and that forgiveness heals the mind
and the soul. God bless you and musicians
come.
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