Rick Lee James Christmas Concert 11-23-2025 at The Bridge Church

Well, good morning everyone. Hi, I'm Rick Lee James. I'm glad to be with you here this morning, and I hope you came ready to sing. We're going to do Together today, and sorry, I didn't realize I was the offertory too. So yeah, and you're gonna be the offertory as well. We're gonna worship together. I'm so grateful. Thank you, Pastor Matthew. Thank you for welcoming me, and you're getting to meet your family this morning was wonderful, and now your church family today. So we're gonna do some worshiping together. I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about me as we go along, and mostly we're gonna focus in on the God who is here with us today. Day. So you're gonna see me do a couple things. I just want to explain, you might wonder, where's that music coming from? I have a thing on the floor where I record some things and then it will play back while we're going along. Usually it goes well. Sometimes I make a mistake and I have to start it over, but I just want to point it out in advance, I'm not perfect and occasionally I make mistakes. So it's like a biblical lesson in the midst of all that today. So this is how it's gonna go, is I will be playing some music and you'll start seeing some other things happening, wondering where it's coming from. It's coming from this thing that I just recorded here on the floor this morning. So—

Tell it on the mountain, over the hills, everywhere go. Tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. While shepherds kept their watchin' o'er silent flocks by night, there shone throughout the heavens There shone a holy light. So sing that along with me now. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. The shepherds feared, the shepherds feared and trembled when lo above the Rang out the angels' chorus that hailed the Savior's birth.

Sing it one more time now.

Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.

I'm gonna play a little bit now.

So go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.

Good singing this morning.

Well done.

I think you're going to know this song too as we sing it together today, and it's called Angels We Have Heard on High. So let's try it together.

Angels we have heard The bird on high sweetly singing o'er the plains, and the mountains in reply echoing their joyous strains. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo. So shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong? What the glad some tidings beats, which inspire your heavenly song. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo. So come to Bethlehem and see him whose birth the angels sing. Come adore on bended knee Christ the Lord, the newborn King.

Sing it out.

Lo, Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Well, thank you. I love the enthusiasm in this room. That helps.

I thank you.

There are some places where I played over the years and people looked like they were baptized in vinegar and lost their best friend and they hardly respond. So you are a very responsive church.

You sing along.

I love it. Thank you so much for being a part of this today. So this song is one that you probably also know. I don't know how many people know the story behind it, though. It was originally a poem called Christmas Bells written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and it was written on the occasion of his son's injury in the Civil War. And prior to this, what you might not know about the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is his wife died horribly in a fire. It was very tragic. He tried to save her and he himself became burnt so badly that he wore a very thick beard the rest of his life to cover the scars that were on his face from the injury from trying to save his wife. It was very tragic. And so in the Civil War, his son was injured. Some stories say that his son was hit by a cannonball. Some say he was shot by a bullet that pierced his spine. But either way, he was very injured. And Wadsworth found himself there with his injured son, a widower, also with his country being torn apart. Everyone fighting, literally, not even just in the words like we have today, literally battling, killing each other. And in sort of an act of defiant hope, which is— I think that's a phrase I want to get going, defiant hope. He wrote the words of this song in the midst of hearing the Christmas bells one morning, not feeling like there was any peace at all, but as a Christian, him declaring that there would be peace on earth, that the wrong would fail and the right would prevail. So we're gonna sing this song along together, and there's gonna be a little place in the middle where there'll be some kind of bell chimes as we go along.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols played, and wild and sweet their words repeat of peace on earth, goodwill to men. I thought how, as the day had come the belfries of all Christendom and rolled along the unbroken song of peace on earth, goodwill to men. Then in In despair, I bowed my head. There is no peace on earth, I said. For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men. Then peal the bells more loud and deep. God is not dead, nor doth he sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail with peace on earth, goodwill to men. Till ringing, singing on its way, the world revolved from night to day. A voice, a chime, a chance of life, of peace on earth. Goodwill to man. Goodwill to man.

Such hope in that song. Truly for us today. And I hope that we'll hold on to it in times when you feel that things are bleak. Be defiantly hopeful in the midst of those situations. Not to be fake, not to be something you're not, but to be a person of hope whose faith is resting in things not seen. We are grateful that God is here with us today. We are grateful we have something to sing about. We are very close to the season of Advent right now, and, and according to the church calendar— I don't know how many of us know about that, different people come from different traditions and they celebrate in different ways— so we are almost to the season of Advent, which is a time where we look to the coming of Jesus. And we look at the first coming of Jesus as a baby and We already are decorating here and getting ready to celebrate in beautiful ways, and I love seeing the churches that I go to, uh, being decorated for that. But we are looking towards the second coming through the eyes of the first coming, through Jesus coming the first time. So this is a song that I wrote. It's a worship song, and I'd love to have you sing along with me. It's called Advent Hymn: Watching, Waiting, Longing. And we are entering into now this season where we are doing just that. We are watching, waiting, and longing for the coming day when the Savior will arrive. So let's worship together.

Heaven sent a child to save us, light for all to see. Helpless baby, mighty Savior, holy mystery. To us a Son is given, born in Bethlehem. Lamb of God, the light of nations, God in flesh became. Here's the chorus. Watching, waiting, longing for the day when his people would glorify the name above all names. Oh, the joy that lay before him chose our agony. Jesus bore the wrath of Calvary, washing sinners clean. Our Messiah, Christ our brother, Word of God in flesh, loosed the chains that held us captive. Broke the bonds of death, watching, waiting, longing for the day when his people would glorify the name above all names. <LYRICS>So we wait with expectation for his advent here. Bride of Christ, his word proclaim for all the world to hear. He will come in clouds descending.</LYRICS> descending at the trumpet sound. In the light of Christ our Savior, every knee will bow. Born in a manger, dying on a tree, rising Easter morning. To set his people free. We're watching, waiting, longing for the day when all nations will glorify the name above all names.

So just to be reminded today that anytime we are talking about the coming Savior at Christmas time, it is always to remind us of the coming again. When he is coming back to be with us. It's always a good reminder of that today. And this is a song that actually comes out of that. There's an old tradition where the people of God would sing, "How long, O Lord?" And they would pray, "O come, O come, Emmanuel, rescue us." The people who were in darkness were waiting for a light. So this is an old hymn, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," that you probably also know. That I'd love to have you sing along with today. It's probably done a little bit different than maybe you've done before because I'm a different person than has led it with you before. So as we always do, it's always a little different with everybody, um, but here it is.

Come, oh, come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lowly exile here. Until the Son of God appears. of night, and death's dark shadows put to flight. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee. Israel. Come thou wisdom, come from on high. And order all things far and nigh, to us the path of knowledge show and cause us in her ways to go. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. Oh, come, desire of nations, bind Our peoples in one heart and mind. Bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease. Fill the whole world with heaven's peace. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

You know, that song is written in a minor key, and I always thought it was kind of funny that we're singing the word rejoice, but we're singing it in a minor key, like, "Rejoice?" Almost like there's a question mark on it, you know, at the end. So I wanted to try something today because it's a lament song. It's praying that God will come in the midst of the suffering. And again, it's that hopeful defiance that says, "I will rejoice even when I'm not feeling like it." But I thought, what if it turned to major and we just got to rejoice a little bit? So we're going to try it this morning. Just singing out the words "rejoice," okay? Now we're gonna celebrate and rejoice together.

Rejoice, rejoice. Sing that out. Rejoice, rejoice. Immanuel shall come to thee, oh Israel, rejoice! People, get ready, Jesus is coming! Soon we'll be going home.

Remember that song?

People get ready, Jesus is coming to take from the world his own.

People get ready, sing it!

People get ready, Jesus is coming. Soon we'll be going home. People get ready, Jesus is coming to take from the world his own.

Amen. Amen. Thanks for singing along with me today, everybody. I'm going to make a quick change over to the piano, so talk amongst yourselves for just a second. I'll even give you a question. You can ask the person next to you. What is your favorite holiday movie?

Go ahead.

Some of you are thinking about that a little too hard this morning. There's not necessarily a right or wrong answer, okay? It's all right. All right, well, I have successfully made the transition to the piano, so We'll continue this morning. I've been sharing a lot of— some of the songs that I've written this morning, but most of them have been old hymns of the church, carols of the church, which I find to be very important. But I'm gonna share a couple songs this morning with you that— actually, this one that I'm about to share and one other one today, it's the first time I've ever played this for anyone except my wife and a couple of close friends, so So be gentle, okay, as we come to this. But I work as a hospital chaplain full-time now. I was a music pastor for about 24 years in Springfield, Ohio at the Church of the Nazarene, one of the Church of the Nazarenes there. And then God called me into this thing called chaplaincy, which just changed everything for me. How I look at ministry is different, and I didn't want it. I wasn't looking for it. It was one of those surprise things that I was ready to fight God on it. I said, God, I have no interest. I hate hospitals. I don't want to be there. And yet, for whatever reason, God, I feel like, made me for this. And I entered into this new ministry. And the reason I'm giving you this preface is not only just to tell you a little bit more about myself. And so tomorrow, Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM till 5:30 PM, sometimes, it's usually a lot later, I'm in hospitals with people having not the best day of their life most times. Every now and then it's a good day when, you know, I mean, it's always a good day. There's babies born, there's wonderful things. It's a good day when you get to leave the hospital and go home feeling better. But there's a lot of hard days too. And I've been asked, as word has gotten out that I do music and travel and do concerts and things, the hospital has asked me to play at different services. And there's a service coming up in a couple weeks that I wrote this song for, and it's called Lights of Love. Maybe you have it in your area too, I'm not sure. But people will put names up on the trees. So in our hospital lobby— I've only been to our hospital, so I can't speak to everybody else's— but in our hospital lobby, they put these beautiful Christmas trees up, which, by the way, I love the trees in here this morning. And there will be snowflakes with names attached to them. And for many people, it is loved ones who have passed away, people that we missed, and so they are memories of people. They also are ways of honoring people in the community. Maybe sometimes it's pastors, sometimes it's people who have done something that is very meaningful in the life of another person. And as a way of honoring all these people, we do this ceremony called Lights of love, and the trees are just full of these snowflakes with names on them. So that'll give you a little bit of context for where this song is coming from. But if you also are finding yourself in this season, that it's a very complicated thing to go through. I know everywhere I go I meet people, and this year for them is going to be a year of firsts. A year without that person at the table that they love so much. A year at Thanksgiving where this person that they loved and have seen year after year, they're not going to get to see them this year because they're not here with us anymore, or there's some kind of loss that hurts. That's what this song is, is helping us hopefully to, to come and, and acknowledge that all of those people matter. They all matter very deeply to God, and they will always matter. They will never be forgotten, nor will the love that we have for them. So this is Lights of love.

On these quiet nights of winter, when the world is hushed and still, we remember those we cherish, who we love and always will. As the candles glow before us, shining softly through the cold. We recall their light among us in the stories that are told. These lights of love remind us of the ones no longer here. The love we shared continues and will always persevere. In the deepest chill of winter or the hardest times of year, the lights of love keep shining in the memories we hold dear. So we gather here and wonder on this holy peaceful night. For the child born in a manger holds our deepest griefs in life. The years that we are given do not end with our last breath. The light shines among us, is not even dimmed by death. These lights of love remind us of the ones no longer here. The love we shared continues, it will always persevere. In the deepest chill of winter, or the hardest times of year, these lights of love keep shining in the memories we hold dear. Each snowflake on the tree holds a name we honor still. In the glimmer lives the memory no darkness can disturb. Each light becomes a witness to the grace their lives have shown. And the shining softly tells us we never are alone. These lights of love keep shining in the memories we hold.

Thanks so much. You all are so kind. And I just want to say again, I don't know your story. I've just met most of you this morning, and some of you I haven't met at all, and I'm just seeing you for the first time, and you're just seeing me. But If you are finding yourself in one of those very complicated times this year, I just want to remind you, you are loved and accepted deeply and sincerely. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know where you will be going. But I believe with all my heart that God will meet you there, wherever it is. He goes before you. God goes with you. God goes ahead of you. And we trust that none of our tears are going to be wasted and that one day every tear will be dried by the hand of our Creator. So I just want to remind you of that this morning. Hold tight. I think defiant hope is that phrase we're going to keep holding to this morning, right? Well, this is a song Um, again, I figured you seem to be okay with that last one I just shared that's brand new that I've never shared before. So, so hey, Bridge Church, you're the debut today. All right, um, as I, as I'm getting ready to do more Christmas concerts, you're my first one of the year, so I'm grateful for that. Um, but I'll be sharing some of these songs at other churches and other places too. So I wanted to write a song, um, because as artists, as songwriters, we're like that. And I was talking— a friend of mine, maybe you've heard of him, he's got some really great music, Jason Gray. Do you guys know any of Jason Gray's music? If you haven't, you should look him up. He's great. I was just talking to him a couple nights ago. He's about to start a Christmas tour with Point of Grace. You probably remember Point of Grace from years ago. They had so many, like, number 1 radio hits, it was amazing. But Jason is getting ready for this Christmas tour, and he wrote a whole album of Christmas songs. And they're not like traditional Christmas, they're just all original stuff. And as songwriters, we kind of go, you know, I want to write my Christmas songs too. But it's so hard to come at an angle because, you know, for like the first 300 years of the church, they didn't even celebrate Christmas. It was all Easter and the resurrection and all that. So trying to get in the right frame of mind. And the reason they didn't, I think, sometimes was because the birth was not nearly as important as the reality to the early church of Christ and who Christ was, but also because it's kind of a scary story when you think about it. It's not like the typical thing we often think of, just, you know, these soft Christmas cards with these beautiful messages of hope and joy. But like, Jesus was a refugee. Like, that very shortly after the birth of Jesus, within a couple years of his life, he and his family were running away for their lives, trying to keep away from a tyrant king who wanted to kill all the baby boys, all right, because he didn't want the new king to come. So I thought, I don't know if I've ever heard a song quite from that angle. So that's what this song is about. It's called Christmas Cards. So I hope, I hope it'll make sense to you in that context today.

We hang up all our Christmas cards of angels on the scene, Mary and Joseph, meek and mild. With shepherds, cows, and sheep. But there between the manger and the Magi from afar, there's pieces of the story we don't put on Christmas cards. We don't see Joseph packing up before the sun can rise, or Mary holding Jesus close, saying, "Baby, please don't cry." 'Cause Herod sent his soldiers out to kill the newborn boys. For the weeping moms in Judah, there would be no Christmas joy. Jesus was a refugee, his family on the run. A king without a country in a land that's not his own. The God who made the universe running for his life. It's not the kind of story that the Christmas cards describe, and it was not a Hallmark movie, sweet as those might be. They were sneaking into Egypt, dodging soldiers in the street, and when you're running from a tyrant who's trying to take your life, It's a different kind of story than the Christmas cards describe. Jesus was a refugee before he walked on waves. He knew the life of exile long before he beat the grave. So maybe love looks different than the stories that we like. So there's a bigger meaning than the Christmas cards describe. And Jesus comes to us today in faces we don't know, in families crossing borders with nowhere else to go. So if we'd make some room for them, we just might be surprised. To find the story runs much deeper than the Christmas cards describe. So don't throw away the Christmas cheer. There's good news for the poor. Every unjust mountain leveled, every mountain be restored. And don't believe the myth that there is no hope in this life. Cause God is so much greater than the Christmas cards describe.

Hoo! Thank you. Made me a little bit sweaty on that one. So maybe we'll look at the, the Christmas story in a little bit different way this year though. I think it's important that we remember the things that Jesus went through, the people he was with, the trials that he faced. He was not a God who was removed from our sorrow. It says he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with our griefs. And so it helps us if we don't have a Savior who knows what it means to to suffer. And if we don't have a Savior who has scars still in his hands, it doesn't help us very much when we are suffering and when we have our own scars. The fact that the resurrected Jesus, the little baby who came, lived, walked among us, healed, died and resurrected, came back to life with scars in his hands, brings such hope to the suffering. Because Jesus is now not just found in the heavens above, but Jesus is found on the bathroom floor. When we can't go any lower, we will find, and we trust that God is there with us. And he shall reign forever and ever. And that's what this song is about. I'm going to teach it to you. It's really easy to sing along to. It's, uh, it's inspired by the Messiah. He shall reign forever and ever.

The kingdom of this world's become the kingdom of our Lord. The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of his Christ. And he shall reign forevermore. And he shall reign forevermore. And he shall reign forevermore. And he shall reign forever and ever.

Are you all people that can snap your fingers like that, kind of along with? You got it?

There you go. There you go. Face down, all heaven gives its praise to him who is and was. Face down, all heaven gives its praise to him who is to come. And he shall reign forevermore. And he shall reign forevermore. And he shall reign forevermore. And he shall reign forever and ever. Emmanuel, God is with us. Coming bow before his throne. Emmanuel, God is with us. Come and bow before his throne. And he shall reign forevermore. And he shall reign forevermore. And he shall reign forevermore. And he shall reign forever and ever.

Thanks. And for all of you who persevered and snapped for half of that song, thank you. Thank you. Great is your reward in the kingdom of heaven. Well, I can't say that for sure, but if it were up to me, great is your reward. Thanks for snapping along today. So, well, I just have one last song to do today, and I just want to thank you all again so much. Thank you for being so attentive. Thank you for singing along. Thank you for listening. Um, thank you for some of you who have entered in today, even just briefly, into difficult emotions. And I just want you to know you are loved, and I want to remind you of that. I try every day when I'm with people in the hospital to remind them that you matter. And I want you all to be reminded of that today. If nobody has told you that, I know this without even meeting you before today. You matter. You matter. The image of God is inside of each and every one of you. When I was going into my chaplaincy training kicking and screaming because I didn't know why God was calling me into this and I was scared to death. I don't think anybody knew less about chaplaincy than me at the time. I don't think anybody had less interest in being a chaplain than me at the time. But God calls who God calls into strange things sometimes. And I'm so glad that God did this for me in my life. And this one story goes into the final song today. When I was being interviewed for my residency at one of the hospitals where I worked, I was asked by one of the people interviewing me, "Do you want to see— do you want Jesus to be seen in you, or do you want to see Jesus in others?" And I don't know that it was ever put to me that way before. Do you want people to see Jesus in you, or do you want to see Jesus in others? And I kind of fumbled over the answer, and I, well, I mean, of course I want people to see Jesus in me, right? And I want to be Christ-like. I want that. And well, but I, you know, can it be kind of both? And he said, well, you know, and I always knew with this particular preceptor And he said, "Well, you know, I probably didn't have exactly the answer they were looking for." And he said something so profound that changed my life. It comes from Matthew 25, the story of the sheep and the goats, where Jesus says, "Whatever you do or do not do to others, you're doing that to me, or you're not doing it to me." And he said to me, he said, "You know, when you're walking into a hospital room with a person, we care a lot more that you are looking for Jesus in them than we do that they are hoping to see Jesus in you. Because the Bible tells us that every person is made in the image of God. Jesus tells us that whatever you do to the least of these, you're doing it to him. And we have a lot in scripture about seeing Jesus in other people, but we so often make it about ourselves. And I was like, wow, that's profound. It changed me. To this day, I look at ministry differently. I'm not so much about performing, and I know it's weird to say that where I'm up here performing with the guitar a little bit, but in my life, it's not so much about the performance anymore as much as it is, am I looking to see Jesus in the people in front of me? And that's where this song comes from today.

When you saw me hungry You gave me food to eat. When you saw me thirsty, you gave me water. When I was a stranger, you opened up your door. When you saw me shivering, you clothed and made me warm. You want. Whatever you do to the least of these, you do it unto me. When you serve the broken, the poor, the lost, you're serving Christ your King. When you love your neighbor, when you love your enemy, Whatever you do to the least of these, you do it unto me. When you saw me hurting, you came to soothe my pain. And when you saw me locked up, you came to my prison. When you saw me hopeless, you brought joy into my life. When you saw me suffering, you stayed right by my side. Whatever you do to the least of these, you do it unto me. When you serve the broken, the poor, the lost, you're serving Christ your King. When you love your neighbor, when you love your enemy, whatever you do to the least of these, you do it unto me. Faces of the poor are the faces of the Lord. Faces of the sick are the faces of the Lord. The faces of the addicts, the drag queens, the convicts, the beggars, The atheists, the Muslims, and the racists. The Jews, the gays, the Christians, the straights. The Republicans and the Democrats, the prostitutes, the diplomats. The elderly, the homeless, the disabled, and the The fatherless, the blind, the deaf, those unsure of their righteousness. Oh, the doctors, the lawyers, the pacifists and the soldiers, the humble, the vain, those abused in Jesus' name, the cowardly, the fierce, The selfless and the generous, the hardworking, the lazy, those who the world calls crazy, the bitter, the downhearted. Oh, we've barely gotten started. 'Cause whatever you do to the least of these, Whatever you do to the least of these, you do it unto me. You do it unto me.

Sing this with me now, won't you?

Oh, come, let us Adore him. Oh, come, let us adore him. Oh, come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

Will you stand with me? We're We're gonna sing it again.

Oh, come, let us adore him. Oh, come, let us adore him. Oh, come, let us adore him.

Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning that you are King and you come to save the lost and the broken and hurting. Lord, I pray this morning that you will comfort those during this season and that you will reveal yourself to people in ways that they've never experienced before. Lord, we love you and thank you and give you all the praise. I pray that you be with everybody as they go into this Christmas season, Lord. And I pray that you would help them, Lord, to minister to others when they get the opportunity to, to be able to be generous when the time comes. And Lord, I just pray that you would comfort them as well as they go, as some of them, this is a hard season for. We love you and thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. You are dismissed.