Christmas Eve Service - December 24, 2025

Welcome Rev. David Stewart

Prelude Margaret Bradley, Organ

SERVICE OF LESSONS AND CAROLS

*Carol “Good Christian Men, Rejoice” #207

First Lesson Genesis 3:8-15 (p. 3) Mr. Mitchell

Carol “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” #196

Second Lesson Genesis 22:15-18 (p. 16) Rev. Stewart

Carol “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” #194

Third Lesson Isaiah 7:10-17 (p. 572) Rev. Sulser

*Carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” #201

Fourth Lesson Micah 5:2-4 (p. 779) Mr. Sirasky

Choir Anthem “Were You There on that Christmas Night?”

Fifth Lesson Luke 1:26-38 (pp. 855-856) Mr. Clauson

Carol “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child” #229

Sixth Lesson Matthew 1:18-23 (p. 807) Mr. Mitchell

*Carol “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen” #211

*Seventh Lesson Isaiah 9:1-7 (p. 573) Rev. Stewart

Message “A Promised King” Rev. Stewart

Eighth Lesson Luke 2:8-16 (p. 857) Mr. Mitchell

Carol “Good Christian Men, Rejoice” #207

*Ninth Lesson John 1:1-14 (p. 886) Rev. Sulser

*The Prayer and Blessing

All: Almighty God, you have given your only begotten Son to take our nature upon Him, and to be born this day of a pure virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.

Minister: May he who by his incarnation gathered into one, things earthly and heavenly, fill you with the sweetness of inward peace and goodwill; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

*Carol “Silent Night” 210

Postlude

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Tonight’s offering will go to the “Look/After – Care for Widows and Pastors in Need” ministry of Geneva Benefits.

“IT WAS NOT suddenly and unannounced that Jesus came into the world. He came into a world that had been prepared for him. The whole Old Testament is the story of a special preparation … . Only when all was ready, only in the fullness of his time, did Jesus come.” –Phillips Brooks, The Consolations of God: Great Sermons of Phillips Brooks

“The whole life of Christ was a continual passion; others die martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr . . . His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas-day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of the one and the same day.”—John Donne, Sermon of Christmas-Day, 1626.

“How can God stoop lower than to come and dwell with a poor humble soul? Which is more than if he had said, such a one should dwell with him; for a beggar to live at court is not so much as the king to dwell with him in his cottage.”—William Gurnall