"I have to remind people there's a time for political things and this is not one of them," said the ordained Baptist preacher. "Trouble is when you've been a Baptist pastor and then you run for office, you become a political person. People get real nervous when you show up for church."
He said people usually think about two things when they see a pastor and a politician - "you're going to be here a long time" or he is "going to ask for money", Huckabee joked.
His sermon focused on the meaning of the Christmas story.
"The great truth of Christmas is that no matter how good we are, we're not good enough to know God without the Christ," Huckabee preached, according to The Associated Press. "And no matter how bad...we are not so bad that he cannot find us.
"So while some people seem to want us to lose Jesus, I would like for us to do our best to find him," Huckabee said at the megachurch founded by televangelist John Hagee.
Hagee is known nationally for his staunch support of Israel and is the founder of Christians United for Israel.
"One hundred years from now when all your worries are over, if your faith is in that child in Bethlehem born that day, and you've taken yourself off the throne and you've decided you'd rather be a shepherd than a Herod, then the good news for you is, when the game is over no matter what it looks like now, you win in the end. That is the message of Christmas. So I say to you, Merry Christmas! Jesus is Lord!" Huckabee said.
The Republican presidential hopeful said he would return to his home in Arkansas for Christmas before hitting the campaign trail again ahead of the January 3 Iowa caucuses.
