"Whatever you're going through today jesus understands why because he's been there he's been there so if you're stressed right now if you're overwhelmed know this that in the garden of gethsemane when when all of his friends fell asleep jesus knew what was coming and what did he do he fell to the ground and he said my soul is overwhelmed with agony to the point of death jesus was overwhelmed he knows when you're overwhelmed and he understands when you're overwhelmed if you face anxiety this morning he understands you know jesus was conceived out of wedlock you you to a teenage mom scandalous right scandalous raised in a small town my guess would be that other parents wouldn't want their sons or daughters to play with jesus he was just that little bastard boy with no father." [00:45:27] (68 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




"Think about the details of God in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word became flesh think about the details of God God was Jesus was born God excuse me was born in the form of a child and in his divine promise he was born in the form of a child from providence he prophetically declared the nature of jesus to come well how do you do that carl well he brought gold he's our king he brought myrrh to him he's a suffering servant he's the lamb of god he brought frankincense he is our high priest who was sacrificed for our sin this is why the bible is so important when it tells us in hebrews 4 so let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious god how do we come to his throne boldly one more time how do we come to his throne boldly come boldly to him because he cares you can come boldly to his throne because he understands so let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious god there we will receive his what his mercy because he cares because his justice will be satisfied he can extend his mercy all the time jesus satisfied god's justice and he lived god's mercy what else will we find when we come boldly to the throne well we're going to find grace when we need it the most grace when we need it the most and if you don't understand that grace when we need it the most and if you don't understand anything else that i've said this morning i hope you understand this that you can come boldly just like you are to the throne of god you don't have to clean up you don't have to dress up you don't have to light up you don't have to do anything you just come just as you are you don't have to cower when you come to christ you don't have to be afraid when you come to christ just like when your children come to you if you've had children i can remember back when the girls were little and i'd come home from work and all of a sudden i'd hear from the other side of the house daddy and they'd run and just grab me and you know why because they knew i accepted them they knew i loved them in fact they they didn't even give it a second thought and that's exactly what you and i can do to our savior." [00:52:02] (166 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




"If you're hurting today we want to give him our hurts don't we if you're struggling today we're going to give him our struggles if you're in pain today we're going to give him our pain why because he understands he understands if you feel ashamed today we're going to give him our shame let's give him our shame let's give him our pain i don't think there's a one in here that would say i'm not going to give him my pain let's say you know what my life is perfect nothing going wrong no challenges no hurt no pain no heartache i think everybody in here has just some little hurt and no matter what it is we're going to bring it to jesus right now can we do that." [00:56:28] (76 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




"He's the high priest who's your Savior. If you're struggling financially and the weight of the world seems to be on your shoulder, there's so many expenses and not enough resources, just tell him, God, I'm afraid. I'm afraid. I'm hurting. Jesus, the high priest, he's your provider. He's Jehovah Jireh, your provider. He will meet all of your needs according to his riches in heaven." [00:55:46] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




"Cast your cares on him because he cares for you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Whether your high priest is your comforter. He's been where you've been. He's hurts. He hurt like you hurt. Cry out to him. You're tired. Maybe you're worn out. You're overwhelmed, exhausted. Feel like he can't hold it together. Or maybe you're completely weak and completely broken this morning. He understands your weakness. He's your high priest." [00:57:11] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Good morning. CBC Northwest, soon to be the Bridge Community Church. Great to see you.

Yeah, you can clap for that. Hey, if you haven't been here in the past couple of weeks, let me tell you, in the next couple of weeks, probably maybe around the end of the year or the first part of next year, we are officially changing the name of our church to the Bridge Community Church. If you haven't heard that before, that's a fact. Things are going well. They're making our sign right now. It should be up by December 20th. It's going to be a beautiful sign, and we've got some things being printed around for the church. It's going to be a great thing. We're excited, excited to see about what God's going to do.

And we have a tagline that we came up with for the Bridge Community Church, and it is "finding redemption and restoration in Jesus Christ." So the Bridge Community Church, we are finding redemption and restoration in Jesus Christ. That's who we are. That's who we're going to be in the future. And pray. Praise the Lord for that. Amen.

All right. My name's Carl. If you don't know, if you're here for the first time, we welcome you. And we welcome you online as well.

If you were here last week, we talked a little bit about the backpacks for Harvest Evangelistic Association. How many of you were not here last week?

Okay, well, I'll tell you. Hey, Nancy, good to see you. It's been a long time.

We have a wonderful ministry that's down in Chiapas, Mexico, that works with thousands of kids and hundreds of churches in the woods around Chiapas in the mountains of Mexico. Once a year, they have a VBS for probably, I don't know, 4,000 kids. And they have 20,000 backpacks that they fill, and they're filled with toys, food, colored pencils, writing paper—things that these kids have never had and perhaps never would have had unless they were given to them. So it's a way to get the kids in, and they teach them about Jesus.

Every year, thousands of kids come to Christ, and thousands of parents come to Christ. And so we're hoping that that's going to happen again—no reason why it won't. But I say all that to say that the reason we're talking about the backpacks is because it only costs about $10 to fill a backpack. So what we were asking last week, and we had a great response, I think we're going to buy over 110 backpacks because of you last week, so praise the Lord for that.

And I want to give you an opportunity if you weren't here last week, or if you were here and you didn't have any cash or a check to do that. So today, if you'd like to sponsor a backpack, they're $10 a piece, and you can write us a check or give us $10 in cash. You can just put it in the offering, or you can, better yet, put it in an offering envelope and write "backpacks" on it. That would be great. And that way we'll know exactly what it was for.

So it's been a blessing. It's going to be a blessing to those kids, and we're excited. Maybe we can hit 200 backpacks. I don't know. Y'all that weren't here, you've got about 100 backpacks to go. So maybe you can do it. I challenge you.

It's been a good week. Amen. I hope you had a good week.

You know, you could ask any four-year-old what the best part of Christianity is. You could ask any four-year-old what the best part of Christmas is, and they would, without a doubt, say, "presents." Presents. And, you know, presents are a wonderful part of Christmas, and they've been a big part of Christmas for a long, long time.

The Bible says in Matthew chapter 2 that Jesus got three presents for Christmas the year he was born. And, well, I don't know whether they were Christmas presents or birthday presents. Not sure. I guess it doesn't really matter. But the point is that we're going to talk about these presents, these three gifts, the gifts that Jesus got that very first Christmas over the next few weeks.

Matthew chapter 2, if you don't know the story, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and he was born during the reign of a king called Herod. And then three wise men, or you could call them magi, came a long, long way to see Jesus.

How many of you have a nativity scene at home? Would you raise your hand? Just about everybody. Now, how many wise men? How many wise men do you have in your nativity scene? Three. It's always three, isn't it? Always three.

The truth is, we don't really know how many wise men there were. There could have been three, could have been four, could have been twelve. And if there were twelve wise men, nine of them were cheapskates because they didn't bring anything for Jesus. Only three of them spent the bucks and they got Jesus something for Christmas or for his birthday.

But what we do know for sure is that these men, these wise men, were very educated, and they were probably very wealthy. And we know without a doubt they were desperate to see the new savior of the world.

Matthew tells us in chapter 2, verse 10, you could turn there if you like. Matthew 2, verse 10: "When they saw the star, they were filled with joy. They entered the house and saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chest and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

Now, when our kids were babies, we got diapers, onesies, and formula, and one of those things that sucks the snot out of the baby's nose. I don't know, you know, those are probably the most disgusting gifts I could ever think of. With our girls, Jan would follow the poor kids around the house and wait, "Is that a sniffle?" You know, let me suck that up. And, you know, they'd be crying. I don't know which was worse—the sucking of the snot or whether they were crying so much.

Sorry to be gross, but those are the kind of gifts we got. I don't know. But the wise men brought three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And these gifts were not only valuable; they were deeply, deeply spiritual. Gold is valuable in itself, we know that, and the gold represented the kingship of Jesus. The myrrh that we're going to talk about next week represented Jesus as our suffering servant. And today we're going to talk about frankincense—not Frankenstein, but frankincense.

When I was a kid, I always thought it was Frankenstein, but it's frankincense. Frankincense is an oil, you know, it's kind of like a Swiss Army knife in that it's oil; it has a lot of uses, a lot of real practical uses.

Now, I know a little bit about essential oils thanks to Jan and thanks to my granddaughters. I know that peppermint is for your stomach, that lavender is going to help you sleep a little better and is good for sore muscles, and then eucalyptus helps you breathe if you've got a cold. Most of them smell pretty good, except for Jan has one that smells so bad. I mean, it smells so bad we call it "not tonight honey" oil. I mean, she puts that on and forget it, I'm in the living room.

But now, here's what I learned about frankincense, okay? And I'll try to pronounce it correctly. Frankincense oil is antiseptic. I know what brand it is and wanted to do science together, so he seemed to have a talking about it.

Frankincense was an oil that priests would use during sacrifices to burn the incense. They would get their incense, dip it in the frankincense oil, and then they'd light it. The smoke that came from the incense would rise up to heaven, symbolizing the prayers of the people that were rising in faith to God.

That's why Bible scholars all agree that frankincense represents the priestliness of Jesus or the holiness of Jesus. In Hebrews 4:14, Paul says this: "So then, since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe."

Now, in Scripture, the priest was a representative of the people to God. For the people's sins, the priest would take an innocent animal, kill it, and offer it to God as a sacrifice for the sins of the people. The priest also prayed prayers to God on behalf of the people.

Now, you know this, but since the Garden of Eden, there have been two opposing forces: the holiness of God and the sinfulness of mankind. The holiness of God and the sinfulness of mankind.

Now, we don't like to use the word "sin" these days. Our culture doesn't. We'd rather say, "What a mistake." Yeah, I didn't sin; I just made a mistake. And that would mean that we're not sinners; we're just a bunch of mistakers.

"I didn't sin; I made a mistake." Besides, you know, I just made a mistake. Plus, if it feels good, do it, right? You know, as long as I don't hurt anybody, I can do what I want. You can do what you want. You know, just stay true to yourself. That's all right. It matters. You be you, boo-boo, and I'll be me. That's the way we think some think these days.

But our world, our country, the state of Texas, San Antonio, you and I, we have got to understand the reality of sin. It's not a mistake; it's a sin. When God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, there was no sin. It was just the holiness of God. Wouldn't it have been great to be there? We'll be there one day where there'll just be God and His holiness.

But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, instantly, along with the holiness of God, there was instantly the sinfulness of man. There was the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man, and they were living together.

If we don't understand sin, write this down, would you? If we don't understand the holiness of God, we'll always have a casual approach to sin. I'll say that again: If we don't understand the holiness of God—how holy our God is—if we don't understand that fully, we'll always have a casual approach to sin.

We'll call sin a mistake. "I just made a mistake; I didn't sin." If we don't realize or if we don't understand the holiness of God, if we don't understand what it truly means that God is holy, we will never realize what it cost for our forgiveness, and it cost Jesus His life.

So what does it mean that God is holy, Carl? Well, the word "holy" comes from a Greek word, "agios." Say that: "agios," which means separate. So what is God? He's supernaturally separate. He's perfect in every way. He's flawless. He's pure. He has no fault, no wrong. There is no stain in Him. He is separate. He's perfect.

We need to understand that holiness isn't just one of His attributes, but holiness is the perfection of all His attributes. His power is holy; His grace is holy; His mercy is holy; and His glory is holy.

His holiness, it's His separateness, it's His purity that makes Him worthy of our praise and the object of our worship. I love the song that Jason sang, and I love what he said—that sometimes we just have to say, "We exalt You, Lord. We exalt You for who You are, not for what You've done."

He's done a lot, hasn't He? And He's going to continue to do a lot for us, but that's not why He's here. He's here because He desires our worship, and He came so that He could forgive us of our sins and we could spend eternity with Him.

Our God is holy. Our God is holy. And in case you're wondering, we are not. We're not. He is, and we're not. The Bible says that we've all sinned. We've all fallen short of God's standard, which is what? It's holy.

And it's our sin that breaks the intimacy with God. This is why God hates sin so very much—because it's everything He's not. It's the opposite of holiness.

Sin maneuvers itself in between Him and us. It separates us from God. It breaks our fellowship with Him. It breaks our connection with Him. And it flat breaks our life, doesn't it? That's why God hates sin. God hates sin.

Turn to your neighbor and say, "God hates." God hates sin, and I'm a sinner. Excuse me, God hates sin, but He loves sinners. Aren't you glad?

The holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. So once a year, a high priest would make a sacrifice, and he'd make it as a temporary payment for the sins of all the people. It was known as the Day of Atonement. We're familiar with that. Or you could call it—starts with a "Y"—Yom Kippur. Exactly.

The priest would sacrifice an innocent animal. He'd go into the tabernacle, go behind the Holy of Holies, he would light the incense, or excuse me, light the frankincense, and the incense and the smoke would rise to heaven as a symbol of the prayers of the people going to heaven. It represented the cries to God for His mercy.

Then the priest would take the blood of the animal and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. If you don't know what that is, that's the top of the Ark of the Covenant, in between the two cherubim. They call that the mercy seat. He'd sprinkle the mercy seat with blood, and this would symbolize the death of an innocent one in place of the guilty ones.

It kind of seems unfair, doesn't it, that they would take a poor innocent animal, you know, a flawless animal, and just kill it? But we've got to understand that because God is just, He has to punish sin. God has to punish sin. God is just, but He's also merciful.

On one hand, He's just; on the other, He's merciful. Just like on one hand, He's truth, and on the other, He's life. He's truth and life. He's truth and grace. He's truth and mercy. He's always truth, and He's always mercy. Always good. Aren't you glad?

Turn to your neighbor and say, "God is always good." Always good.

So the sacrifice satisfies God's justness, and at the same time, it gives mercy to His people. The price for the sin has to be paid, but something else pays the price for forgiveness.

So God's justice has to be satisfied, and yet He offers His mercy to the people that He loves at the same time. That was the old covenant. That was when they would sacrifice an animal for the place of the people's sins. That was the old covenant. That was before Jesus.

But we don't live in the old covenant, do we? Now we live in the new covenant. We're under the new covenant because when Jesus was born, so was a new covenant. And I want to see a smile on your face for that. We're under the new covenant. Aren't you glad we don't have to sacrifice an animal just for our sins?

It was temporary. No more innocent animals have to be sacrificed because a new sacrifice was born. It was a much better sacrifice, which was no longer temporary. This sacrifice's name was Jesus, and it was permanent. His sacrifice was eternal.

And that's who we celebrate on Christmas—the birth of our Savior who was sacrificed just for us.

Hebrews chapter 10, verses 8 through 17. Why don't you turn there? We're going to read quite a few verses. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 8 through 17 tells us a little bit about our great high priest. His name is Jesus. Say "Jesus." And He's the Son of God. Say "Son of God."

All right, let's read it. Verse 8: "First, Christ said, 'You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them, though they were required by the Jewish law.' Then He said, 'Look, I have come to do your will.' He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second one into effect."

Jesus came; the first covenant's gone. The new one now is in effect. "For God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time." Once for what? All time.

So He had to do it over and over and over again? No, it was a sacrifice once and for all time. Under the old covenant, the priest stands and he ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away our sins.

Never. If you were to go to a church and they're sacrificing an animal or something like that on behalf of you for your sins, run away because it's not real. We only have one sacrifice for our sin, and His name is Jesus.

Let's go down a little bit in the volume, okay? How long did He sacrifice it for? Once. Once and for all. And then He sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. There He waits until His enemies are humbled and made a footstool under His feet.

Won't it be neat to have a footstool of the devil for our feet? Wouldn't it be great just to kick back and put your feet on the devil? The Bible says he's under our foot, right?

Let's see, where was I? "For by that one offering, He forever made perfect those who are being made holy." You're being made perfect, did you know that?

And the Holy Spirit also testifies this is so, for He says, "This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day," says the Lord. "I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."

God's law, if you're a believer, say, "I am." God's law is in your heart. It's tattooed in your heart. And if you don't like tattoos, I'm sorry, okay? But you've got a tattoo on your heart, and it's God's law, and you've got His law written on your minds.

Aren't you glad? That's why if you're a believer, you can never sin and not be sorry. You can never sin and continue it and not be convicted for your sin. Why? Because His laws are on your heart, and His laws are written on your mind.

So when we sin, we need to repent. And there's always that draw to repent. Amen?

Has anybody sinned this week? Oh, my. Oh, yeah. Somebody on the second row. Third row. Every day.

Let me read that again: "I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then He says, "I will never again remember their sins and lawlessness." Wow! Never again!

This little baby came, and that little baby grew up, and He gave His life for you and me. God's will for us was to be made holy, but we're not holy, are we? Not in and of ourselves.

So how are we made holy? We're made holy by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ once and for how long? For all time. That's right.

What the high priest did day after day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which never could take away our sin, our high priest, whose name is Jesus, offered Himself as a single one-time sacrifice for all time, satisfying the justness of God on one hand and extending the mercy to you and me on the other.

Took care of the justice because God can't look at sin, can He? God hates sin. But it also gave us mercy at the same time.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'll take the new covenant over the old covenant any day. Jesus is a great high priest. He's not a distant savior; He's as close as a whisper. And His mercy and grace are perpetually being offered to us every single moment of every single day.

Scripture says this about our high priest: Hebrews 4:14. Let me read it for you. "So then, since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe."

Let us hold firmly to what we believe. This high priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all the same testings we do, yet He did not sin.

Now, I hope that you will understand. Yeah, keep it going. Yeah, Chris. I don't know, Chris and I didn't get together on this. Do you guys know Chris? This is Chris Ponce, and he's the only one that I know that can rock a beanie like he does.

You can raise the volume a little bit, okay? I love Chris.

Let me read that scripture again. I got distracted. "So then, since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This high priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all the same testings that we do, yet He did not sin."

That's right. I hope you'll understand today and embrace the truth that whatever you're going through, Jesus understands. He relates to your trials. He sympathizes with your pain. Whatever you're going through today, Jesus understands.

Why? Because He's been there. He's been there. So if you're stressed right now, if you're overwhelmed, know this: that in the Garden of Gethsemane, when all of His friends fell asleep, Jesus knew what was coming. And what did He do? He fell to the ground and He said, "My soul is overwhelmed with agony to the point of death."

Jesus was overwhelmed. He knows when you're overwhelmed, and He understands when you're overwhelmed. If you face anxiety this morning, He understands.

You know, Jesus was conceived out of wedlock. You, too, a teenage mom—scandalous, right? Scandalous. Raised in a small town. My guess would be that other parents wouldn't want their sons or daughters to play with Jesus. He was just that little bastard boy with no father.

He understands. He understands.

Jesus lived in poverty. He was criticized. He was ridiculed. He was bullied. He was tempted by the devil again and again and again, but He did not sin. He experienced the death of a close friend. He grieved the loss of family members. He was accused of things He didn't do. His friends betrayed Him. And worst of all, He felt abandoned by God on the cross because God can't look at sin, can He?

So for that one moment, God had to turn away because He couldn't look at His Son's sin. I don't know about you; I'd have a hard time turning away from my child.

So when Jesus was on the cross and God looked the other way, and Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"

So if you've ever felt like you couldn't reach God, Jesus understands because He couldn't reach God that day. Whatever you felt, whatever you feel, He felt. Wherever you hurt, He hurt.

He's our great high priest who sympathizes with us. He's not up in heaven saying, "Hey, sucks to be you." No, it's not Him. He's our high priest who's experienced all of the pain that we experience—all the pain of being human, all the emotion of being rejected by friends.

Have you ever been rejected by a friend? It hurts, doesn't it? He experienced all the agony of hurting, feeling alone, feeling abandoned. If you've ever felt abandoned, maybe by your parents or maybe by a spouse, Jesus understands.

Think about the details of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word became flesh. Think about the details of God. God was—Jesus was born. God, excuse me, was born in the form of a child.

In His divine promise, He was born in the form of a child from providence. He prophetically declared the nature of Jesus to come.

Well, how do you do that, Carl? Well, He brought gold—He's our King. He brought myrrh to Him—He's a suffering servant; He's the Lamb of God. He brought frankincense—He is our high priest who was sacrificed for our sin.

This is why the Bible is so important when it tells us in Hebrews 4: "So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God."

How do we come to His throne boldly? One more time: How do we come to His throne boldly? Come boldly to Him because He cares.

You can come boldly to His throne because He understands. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His what? His mercy.

Because He cares. Because His justice will be satisfied, He can extend His mercy all the time. Jesus satisfied God's justice, and He lived God's mercy.

What else will we find when we come boldly to the throne? Well, we're going to find grace when we need it the most. Grace when we need it the most.

And if you don't understand anything else that I've said this morning, I hope you understand this: that you can come boldly just like you are to the throne of God. You don't have to clean up; you don't have to dress up; you don't have to light up; you don't have to do anything. You just come just as you are.

You don't have to cower when you come to Christ. You don't have to be afraid when you come to Christ. Just like when your children come to you—if you've had children, I can remember back when the girls were little, and I'd come home from work, and all of a sudden, I'd hear from the other side of the house, "Daddy!" And they'd run and just grab me.

And you know why? Because they knew I accepted them. They knew I loved them. In fact, they didn't even give it a second thought. And that's exactly what you and I can do to our Savior.

So question: How long has it been since you've come boldly to your Savior? How long has it been?

How long has it been since you've run from the back of the house and said, "Oh my God, Daddy! Daddy!"

The Bible says that He's our dad. He's our Father. He's our heavenly Father—a perfect Father, perfect Dad.

If you're hurting today, we want to give Him our hurts, don't we? If you're struggling today, we're going to give Him our struggles. If you're in pain today, we're going to give Him our pain. Why? Because He understands. He understands.

If you feel ashamed today, we're going to give Him our shame. Let's give Him our shame. Let's give Him our pain. I don't think there's a one in here that would say, "I'm not going to give Him my pain."

Let's say, "You know what? My life is perfect. Nothing going wrong. No challenges, no hurt, no pain, no heartache." I think everybody in here has just some little hurt.

And no matter what it is, we're going to bring it to Jesus right now. Can we do that? Let's run to Him from the back of the house.

Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You are a great high priest who sacrificed His life for the forgiveness of our sins.

And Lord, we know that You pray for us even sitting here right now. So just take a minute and talk to Him. Talk to Him. You've come boldly before the throne. Make it count. Make the time count.

He cares about you. He understands the details.

Maybe you're far from God this morning. He understands. God turned His back on Jesus.

Maybe you have a loved one this morning that's far from God. Would you just lift that loved one up to Him?

Who is Jesus right now? He's your great high priest. He's the high priest who's your Savior.

If you're struggling financially and the weight of the world seems to be on your shoulders, there's so many expenses and not enough resources, just tell Him, "God, I'm afraid. I'm afraid. I'm hurting."

Jesus, the high priest, He's your provider. He's Jehovah Jireh, your provider. He will meet all of your needs according to His riches in heaven.

Maybe today you're hurting emotionally. "Carl, I just, I'm depressed. Can't snap out of it. I can't get out of this spiral that I'm going through."

Just give Him that depression. Give Him that hurt. Give Him that emotion. Cast your cares on Him because He cares for you.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Whether your high priest is your comforter. He's been where you've been. He's hurt. He hurt like you hurt. Cry out to Him.

You're tired. Maybe you're worn out. You're overwhelmed, exhausted. Feel like you can't hold it together. Or maybe you're completely weak and completely broken this morning. He understands your weakness.

He's your high priest. Talk now. I hope you'll use this time. Take advantage of these seconds. Give your heart to Jesus. Give Him your cares.

Give your heart to Jesus.

Coming up on us—a crazy busy season where a lot of times we just catch ourselves coming and going and stressed out. We need times like this to get back to normal.

Maybe you're here and you need Jesus as your Savior. You say, "Carl, yeah, He's my high priest." Well, I don't know that.

Well, He's your high priest and your Savior. He sacrificed His life for you. He endured the backturning of God for you, for me.

The Bible says, "All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved." If you want to get saved right now, if you want to be born again, if you want a new hope for your life, Jesus is the answer.

And if that's you, would you repeat this prayer after me?

Dear Jesus, this morning I trust You and I accept Your forgiveness for all of my sins. Come into my life. Fill me with Your Spirit.

Oh, help me read Your Word and do what You want me to do. Do what it says. Thank You for my salvation. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Amen and Amen and Amen. God is good all the time.

If you prayed that prayer for the first time, we just want to salute you and salute God, and we just want to clap for you.

If you're online and you accepted that, accept that Christ is your Savior. You can only do it one time, just like He was crucified just one time. That's it. That's all that was necessary.

If that's you, we want to know who you are. Not so we can bug you, but just so we can congratulate you and see if we can help you in your new walk with Christ because, you know, this is just the beginning.

This is just the first day of a great life that's ahead of you as a Christian, as a Christ follower.

So if you would, we have a bulletin there. If you would just tear off that little response card, just give us your name and a phone number. That will do, and we're going to text you and see how you are.

Actually, an address would help a lot because we want to send you a Bible. Jasmine wants to send you a Bible, and we just want to see how you're doing this week, okay?

And see if we can help you. So if you would do that, that would be wonderful. Put it in the offering box. And if you're at home and you accepted Christ, just text this number: 210-334-1125. That number again is 210-334-1125.

All right, Maritza, you got something to say?

She got something to say. Come on, say it.

God bless you. Thank you.

Oh, just make it to the church.

Subject: Frankincense: The Holiness and Compassion of Christ

Dear CBC Northwest,

Reflecting on the gifts of the wise men, I am reminded of the profound holiness and priestliness of Jesus, symbolized by the gift of frankincense. This past Sunday, we explored how this precious gift underscores Jesus' role as our great high priest, bridging the gap between the holiness of God and our own sinfulness. We were reminded of the deep spiritual truths embedded in the Christmas narrative, particularly the dual nature of Jesus' mission to bring redemption and restoration. As we embrace our identity as the Bridge Community Church, let us hold fast to the new covenant established through Jesus' sacrifice, which offers eternal forgiveness and bridges the gap between God's justice and mercy.

In light of these truths, I encourage you to approach God's throne with confidence, knowing that Jesus, our empathetic high priest, understands our weaknesses and offers grace and mercy in our time of need. Let us come to Him just as we are, bringing our burdens and sins, and find comfort in His compassionate embrace. This Christmas season, may we be ever mindful of the gift of Jesus, who offers us redemption and restoration.

Blessings,
CBC Northwest Team