Rejoicing in the Mess! | The Mess & The Miracle

So as we start our Christmas Day message, as we conclude a sermon series on the mess

and the miracle, I'm going to read an account of Christ's birth.

And I guarantee you it's not one that you're expecting.

A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet

and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and giving agony, with the agony of

giving birth.

And another sign appeared in heaven, behold a great red dragon with seven heads and ten

horns and on each of his head seven diadems.

His tail swept down a third of the stars in heaven and cast them to the earth.

And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore

her child he might devour it.

She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule over all the nations with a rod of

iron.

But her child was caught up to God and to his throne.

Merry Christmas.

So that is the Christmas story in the book of Revelation.

That is the end game.

Where we are in the beginning that is the end.

And we're going to break down that text but I didn't want to just give you that version

of the Christmas story because that one graphic, right, vivid, somewhat terrifying, probably

one you're not going to read on Christmas Eve if you hope your kids want to sleep.

But for a lot of us we do better with this one.

And Joseph went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, the city of David, which

is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered

with Mary his betrothed who was with child.

And while they were there the time came for her to give birth.

She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a

manger because there was no place for them in the inn.

All right.

That's the one we're used to.

That's the one that we like.

And we like that because it's Christmassy, right?

It reads very much like a Hallmark movie and it reads very much about the traditions that

we've come to know, the traditions we've come to have as believers of this is being Christ's

birth.

But as believers we know that Christ came, He lived, He died, we'll celebrate that at

Lent, and then He rose again, we'll celebrate that in Easter.

Then He ascends, but then we know that He's going to come back.

And all the while in there we have been given a job to do.

That we have been given the authority of Christ, all authority on heaven and earth been given

to me.

Now you go.

That is derived authority.

That's not authority intrinsic in you.

You didn't grow up with that authority.

You didn't earn that authority.

Jesus says, God the Father gave it to me.

Now I'm giving it to you.

Now you go.

That baby Jesus grown up now, Savior of the world, conquers death itself, is now giving

us a job to do.

But we really like to start it with Christmas.

We really like to start it with Christmas songs.

I was going to look around to see if anyone was doing the hand motions too away in the

manger.

We like that.

It's comfortable.

Let me ask you a question.

Is it really comfortable or have we made it comfortable?

We talked a little bit yesterday about Jesus coming.

Why He came, the way He came, understanding that He just in being born had a title, had

many titles, had a job to do, had a duty, right?

He had a call on His life.

He was given many titles.

He was going to establish many things.

Now for some of you, and I have never owned my own business, but for some of you that

do, okay, Scott, you're easy.

I'll pick on you.

Well, so I will do the vrices.

I know.

Mike was just going to take it, but he pointed to you.

Just so you know, Mike pointed to you, Randy.

When you had your children born, did you hold them up, maybe like Lion King, maybe not,

and just say, you will be great at site services?

You did.

Okay.

I didn't think you were going to answer that way, so I got to bring this back.

But we don't have a lot of that when we're born, right?

The scut boys are up there shaking, just going, oh no.

But we don't really do that.

When my three sons were born, I didn't try to imprint on them anything, because we don't

do that to a baby.

A baby is meant to be utterly dependent on mom and dad, right?

Dads can still get up, right?

They can still get up in the middle of the night and all those kind of things.

All of our pregnant women right now have just elbowed their soon to be dads.

And understanding that we don't put any pressure on a baby.

We don't.

The only pressure, if we're being honest, is at some point it's going to eat solid food,

right?

And at some point it's going to sleep longer than three hours.

That's really the only expectations we put on.

When do the expectations start coming?

For all of those that have been parents, aunts, uncles, or grandparents, when do the expectations

on kids start to come?

High school.

Man, I would have loved to live in that house.

High school.

Thirteen and younger, you get to do whatever you want.

It's party time.

Who said that?

No, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand.

But when do we start putting expectation?

Kindergarten.

So that's very different than high school, right?

Anywhere else?

When do we put expectations on our kids?

Party training.

That's a big one.

Year one.

Walk.

Oh, when they're walking.

Okay.

You went, Vandervoet House, you can walk.

Go get a job.

Right?

That's exactly, right?

That's exactly what I hear Larry saying.

Say that again?

As soon as we know about them, leave it to Mike to drop a deep truth there.

Anyone else?

Well, that is an expectation that you give, right?

But when do you start giving that?

Is that still, is that for Ryan as well?

Yeah, okay.

Someone was going to answer.

The day they're born.

Okay.

So, isn't it funny?

There is no set standard here.

So we have at birth, we have when they can walk, when we know about them, when they're

in high school.

Kindergarten.

In the back, was that a hand up or were you just waving?

Hi, good to see you.

Understanding that we don't put these expectations on kids because they don't really do much

as babies.

And I think that that's one of the most interesting things about the Christmas story is that Jesus

had all these expectations on him.

We don't know a lot about him as a baby.

We have that one, we hear that they go to Egypt but he's still a baby.

And we have that one when he's juvenile, right?

At a certain age, he stays in the temple when mom and dad's caravan goes.

They ask him why he wasn't with them.

He says, I should be in my father's house.

There's a recognition that Jesus had very early on that he was different.

He had these expectations.

But what Revelation tells us is not only did he have expectations, but this baby had enemies

the day it was born.

I don't think that's anything we ever have encountered.

Now maybe if you have older siblings, right, the day the younger sibling's born, maybe

that's a very small case of that.

Scott Boyd, stop looking at each other.

That now all of a sudden you have competition, right?

I get that.

I was the competition for my sister Lynn, right?

It wasn't much of a competition, but I was.

And understand that that's really, it has nothing to do with what we just read in Revelation.

That Jesus, when he was born, had enemies.

When Jesus, when he was born, had a force that really wished he wasn't.

That we read in Revelation that there is this dragon, right, this dragon representing Satan,

representing the evilness.

Now there are many ways to read the book of Revelation.

We're gonna get to that in the fall.

We're gonna do the whole book, 10,000 foot view, starting after Labor Day.

But in this kind of illustration, we're going to use the great dragon as sin and Satan and

death itself.

So have you ever thought about that, about the little baby Jesus, that the enemy of this

baby was death itself?

We have to understand it at this stage of his life because it helps us understand it

when he conquers death itself.

That he beats death.

This baby is going to beat death itself.

That this baby's gonna offer everlasting life in great juxtaposition of what the dragon

wanted to happen.

The dragon wanted to devour it.

The dragon wanted it to be done.

The dragon thought that he was going to win.

As we know in the book of Revelation, he doesn't.

We know in the book of Revelation that Jesus came, right, the 12 symbols in that book of

Revelation, the 12 tribes of Israel, that Jesus came to redeem the 12 tribes of Israel.

But then as we go further, those diadems, because Revelation is all about imagery and

trying to understand that and unpack that, those diadems are the Gentiles.

That Jesus came to not only save the Israelites and be the Masha'iah or the Messiah, he was

also going to come and make a way for everybody to come to the Father in salvation.

When my boys were born, I just hoped they didn't get detentions.

That's the perspective I had as a new parent.

Not really know what I'm doing, and none of us really do.

Whether you took parenting classes or Lamaze classes or whatever those are, nothing will

ever prepare you for when those kids are there.

And if we're being honest, all we do is really mimic those that have come before us.

Because the generations before us, we learned things of what to do and what not to do.

But I always find it funny talking with parents when kids get to be about 5, 6, 7.

Here it goes, I thought I'd never be like my parents, but last week I had a conversation

with my kid and I just went back to that exact conversation I had with my parents.

The apples don't fall far from trees.

So what we have to understand is that not only is this expectation, this enemy of death

itself is on Jesus, and we celebrate this Christmas as Jesus going in.

What we have to recognize in this, Jesus has all of this because of us.

That Jesus has to come into a world of struggle in order to save it.

Yes, that's the first century.

And he goes through 33 and a half years, he dies, he rises again from the dead.

We know that, we'll get to that in Lent and Easter.

But the mess of all of it is exactly what he was born into.

He was born into our mess.

He was born into all of the junk that we struggle with today.

This little baby being born so you will not die to whatever sin you are struggling with

today.

Now that doesn't give us allowance to sin, right?

That doesn't say, oh, well, God's going to forgive us so I'm going to sin.

Paul calls that cheap grace and we don't want to be about that.

But we understand that the struggle, the mess is exactly what Jesus came to solve.

What he came to clean.

All of those kind of idioms you want to use.

Jesus came in for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

And whoever believes in him will have everlasting life.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

It's not like the plate was great.

He was born in a manger.

He was born into struggle.

He was born into a world of sin.

He was born through the sin of his parents, right?

Not born into the sin of his parents, but his parents were not perfect.

It's one of the things we differ with our Catholic brothers and sisters.

We do not believe that Mary was perfect because she was an Israelite.

She was born of Adam and Eve.

Sin was in her DNA.

Fully God, fully man, born on this day to conquer our DNA.

To conquer who we really are.

And I don't know about you, but that really throws me for a loop.

That this beautiful baby, the closest thing we have to perfection, if you will, in our

lives, he himself actually is.

He was born to make sense and help me in the messes I find myself.

And babies though, they don't really go through that.

We don't say when, and maybe you did, maybe you're uber spiritual and you did that, that

after just the third time of getting up at night, you go, man, this baby is so sinful.

It won't sleep.

If that's you, that's fine.

That's between you and Jesus.

I don't think that's accurate, but it is what it is.

We don't put those things on the baby.

We don't put them on babies.

And however you kind of grew up in your family, at some point expectations were put on you

and the choice to disobey was officially given.

Anyone want to tell us how early it was when you started disobeying?

Go ahead, Joey.

Two years old.

That tracks.

Anyone else?

One.

Thank you, Holland owner boys.

You guys notice no one else is answering, so props to you.

The minute we are given an expectation, hence why I asked, right?

So whoever said high school, you got to do all the crazy stuff because there was no expectations

on you.

But in the Holland owner house, kindergarten, you are told this is what I want you to do.

And we all know what the options are.

You can do it and you cannot do it.

And there are consequences for those actions.

We started this Advent journey in the Garden of Eden.

We started with Jesus or God creating everything and telling Adam and Eve, you can do all of

these things, but here is the one thing you can't do.

Do not eat of this tree.

You can eat everything else.

The first expectation, they were grown people, if you will, was given an expectation.

They chose to disobey.

So this Christmas, this baby has come to help us obey.

This baby has come to engage a world that wants to radically disobey.

Whether it is in our families, whether it is in our jobs, whether it is in the society,

in our politics, in the world we live in, we love to disobey.

It is in our nature.

It wasn't in his.

And he came to give us a better way.

And so this Christmas, as we walk through this version of the Christmas story that Jesus

has come to conquer, he has come to save, he has come to lift up, he has come to see,

he has come to notice those that don't think they are noticed.

He's come to love all of us that need that kind of love, which is all of us.

He's come to give us a better way.

He's come to remind us that the biggest, greatest thing in your life is to love God with everything

you are.

Let's start there.

I don't know about you, but that's convicting.

Wait a minute.

I have to love God with all of my heart, all of my soul, all of my mind, and all of my

strength.

That pretty much encapsulates everything.

The only thing, I mean, it's your body, maybe your appetite, but that's a weird thing, and

we don't have to dissect it that way.

But understand that Jesus says this is it.

Be a good worker.

Be a great wife, a great husband, be a superior athlete.

Do whatever I've gifted you to do.

But this is the number one most important thing.

This is the Christmas gift every day that we know what we are called to do is to love

God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

You do that, you are an excellent Jew.

You are an excellent Israelite.

That's exactly what the Torah was founded on, and that is exactly what you memorized.

That's exactly what you talked about.

Jesus comes to say, and I'm going to show you how to do it.

The Word became flesh.

We read a couple weeks ago in John 1, 1, and dwelt among us.

He didn't dwell among us because Jerusalem or Nazareth or Capernaum or Bethlehem was

better than heaven because it's not.

But he came to dwell among us to show us the way because he knows we need it.

Because he knows we will all go astray when given the opportunity.

You can't deny that.

How do I know?

Because you are all sinners.

If you weren't a sinner, friend, you wouldn't need to be here.

You would start parting way earlier.

And it would probably be really lonely because no one can fit that bill.

But understand that Jesus came to show us the way even though he knew the forces that

were against him, but he knew what his expectations were.

He knew the job that he had.

He knew the way he was supposed to do it because him and the Father were one.

He understood the will of the Father and the will of the Father was to love the Lord your

God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Beautiful.

Love it.

Amen.

And your neighbor as yourself.

Wouldn't it be so much easier if he stopped and he put a period instead of a comma?

For all of you grammar people, you might say, no, it's actually a period.

It's a second clause, so it's a new sentence.

Stop it.

For my purposes, it's a comma.

Wouldn't it be easier?

Because I can love God with everything.

I can love God, right?

It might not be hard for you to love God.

Like if that was it, if that was what we had to do, Merry Christmas, hallelujah, we're

going to love God with everything.

And our vertical relationship, awesome.

But Jesus comes to remind us of how we do that.

And not only remind us, but shows us how we do that.

The greatest Christmas gift that you can ever give is loving God and loving others the way

you love God, loving others the way you love yourself.

Well, now we can get into some really awkward conversations.

Now, all of a sudden, some of us are starting to tighten because we came here with someone

from our extended family we don't really like.

But it's Christmas.

This is what we do.

And we're going to clench through dinner and we're going to see each other again next year.

I don't think that's what we're called to do.

Or maybe, you know what, you're setting aside the marital arguments because it's Christmas,

but you'll pick it back up in the new year.

I don't think that's what we're called to do.

I don't think that's what that baby represents.

Or maybe you're here and you're going, well, I'm not going to do that.

I'm not going to do that sin this week because it was a holy night.

We sang it.

I feel good.

I have that spiritual high.

I can fight this sin on my own right now.

But after the new year, yeah, I'm probably going to fall into it, but I'm going to try

to hide it from God.

I don't think that's what that baby represents.

I don't think this baby represented in front of the sin and death itself who wants to devour

it so you can lie to God, so you can lie to your neighbor, so you can lie to yourself

and believe you're living the best life.

Now if you're here and you don't claim yourself as a believer, then that set of standards

is different for you.

But my hope and my prayer is that you do because there is this thing called grace.

One of you said it.

I think it was the youngest scut said grace.

That's what Christmas represents, that this is the birth of grace itself for that sin

that you are struggling with, that mindset that you seem to have or fall into time to

time.

That mindset for all of us can be different, but I guarantee it's similar in the fact that

you believe you're better than other people.

That the baby represents grace from all of those things.

So the perspective that I want all of us to have and friends, I am looking in the mirror

before I say any of this to you.

What is the dragon in my life that's trying to devour me?

Is it the anxieties?

Is it the greed?

Is it, insert whatever here, the idolatry, the adultery, the stealing, the go through

the commandments, go through the 600 laws, whatever it is.

You'll find something that you're struggling with here in 2023, about to be 2024.

That is the dragon that wants to devour you.

Because the dragon doesn't want a relationship with you, it doesn't want to be your pet,

it wants to be your dominance.

It wants to be the owner of your soul.

And the baby comes to represent something very, very different.

That this baby comes to represent life and life to the fullest.

This baby comes to say, love God with all that you are, every day, every minute of every

day.

When you fall, seek that forgiveness, find that accountability and follow God.

But how do you do that?

By loving your neighbor as yourself.

Well, I hate my neighbor, sorry.

I hate my coworker, sorry.

So you're like, I don't use the word hate.

Okay.

I don't like my neighbor.

Okay.

Are you still gonna love him?

Well, then you probably hate him.

And again, that love looks very different for all of us.

For some of us, that love looks a lot like tolerance, but we pray about it and we try

to be a good person in it.

But that's the perspective of Christmas.

The perspective of Christmas is that you actively love people the way you actively love God.

Well, Pastor, I passively love God, so I'm gonna passively love people.

That's not how you do it.

He has come that we might have life and life to the fullest because as I'm gonna close,

as I started, he then tells us, I have been given this authority, Jesus, I'm now giving

it to you.

So your Christmas gift that you can give the world, and friends, this doesn't get you out

of giving your loved one a Christmas gift, especially if things bought as one of their

love languages.

The greatest gift you can give them is to actively love them.

Well, Pastor, how do I do that?

Everybody meet their needs.

How do I do that?

Well, if they're in need of food, feed them.

If they're in need of drink, give them something.

If they're in need of presence and community, offer it.

But I don't really like them.

I think the baby would say, get over yourself.

I died for them as I died for you.

I have forgiven them, I have forgiven you.

Now, I understand that you might not be BFFs.

I get that.

The greatest Christmas gift we can give one another is to truly love them, to truly see

them, because we have a world of people that wanna hide.

The church shouldn't be that giant heat lamp like we talked about, like the detective says,

but it should be that warm fire in the fireplace that draws people to come to community.

Say, I don't have anybody in my life.

You can have Munster Church.

I don't know the way to life.

I don't know what, I don't know the purpose or what I'm called to do in this life.

Let's talk about it together.

I'm not good enough to go to Munster Church.

And I'm giving you this permission.

We have Jim Holland on our as our pastor.

We'll take anybody.

Feel free.

That's the greatest Christmas gift you can give.

Yeah, the shiny things and the toys and the food and the, that's all well and good.

But do you think the baby was born for all of that?

You think the baby was born so we would celebrate today and maybe into tomorrow and then forget

about him on Wednesday?

No.

He was born to make the ultimate eternal difference in our life.

If he wasn't that important, death itself would not try to devour him.

That's the power that he has.

That's the love that he has for you.

So as we walk through this today, as we walk through Christmas, may we not just keep

it to this season, but may we actively love God and love people well as we finish up this

year and guess what?

Even better in 2024.

Because when we get up there, when our time on this earth is passed, I'm going to use

someone that most of us know.

I would love to be a fly on, never mind, there's probably not flies in heaven.

I'd rather be whatever on the wall in heaven when Archie Besine or Ellie Besine get up

there.

They're not perfect people.

They're not.

Are they held of high esteem?

Sure.

For the ministry they did for years and years and years.

When Jesus looks at both of them and says, well done, good and faithful servant.

Come into the kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the world, friend, my number

one goal for you, my number one hope for you as long as I get to be your pastor is that

when you get up there, that's what you're going to hear as I hope you want that for

me.

Because that should give us the ultimate Christmas gift to give people, salvation.

For a world that doesn't know Jesus, guess what, they're not going to hear that.

As you walk through this with people, as you get into the mess of life with people, understand

that mess has already been redeemed.

Again, it doesn't mean we get to continue in the mess for mess sake, no.

It's already been redeemed because we know who entered it first.

So enter that mess with the people in your life.

Sit in the struggle that people have.

Come with me, I'll do it with you.

I'll sit with you.

I'll sit with your friend.

We can do this together because the one thing we have to remember this Christmas is A, we're

all messy.

B, Jesus was born in the mess and made sense of it.

Reached it and gave us a better way.

So may we give that to the world that so desperately needs it.