Advent 2024 - Christmas Eve

Than just me or you an individual.

But it's a story of a holy God, a loving God,

and his love for humanity. So if you got a Bible,

go to John chapter one. Let's start in verse one.

It says, in the beginning was the Word in the

beginning of what you know, when we think about that,

usually our mind goes to Genesis right in the beginning

of creation. But it's even before that, in the beginning.

And I know it's hard for us to wrap our

minds around it because when you talk about eternity, it

has no beginning. But to God there had to be

a beginning, because he's the creator, even of eternity. And

in the beginning of that was the Word, and the

Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him, nothing

was made.

That was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light

of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and

the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man

sent from God whose name was John. This man came

for a witness, to bear witness of the light that

all through him might believe. He was not that light,

but he was sent to bear witness of that light,

that was the true light, which gives light to every

man coming into the world. He was in the world,

and the world was made through him, and.

The world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own did not

receive him, but as many as did receive him to them.

He gave the right to become the children of God

to those who believe in his name, who were born

not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,

nor the will of man, but of God.

And here's Christmas.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we

beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten

of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.

Just pray, Father, we thank you for your word. It's

the only change agent on the face of the planet.

And today I pray that you change us at the

very fabric of our being.

Way down where we really are, so or not.

The picture we pain in front of people, but in

the place where our insecurities dwell, the place where our

fears are, the place where I worry and anxiety is born.

In those places, Father, I pray that you change us,

that you allow us to see ourselves the way you

see us. Let this Christmas be a little different. Let

this be the Christmas that Jesus is born anew in

all of our lives in Jesus' name. Amen says that

I that Jesus was there and from the very beginning,

and even after creation, even after he spoke everything into existence,

that everything was still full of darkness. Darkness, that separation

between man and God, that separation that came when sin

entered the world and created a chasm between fallen man

and holy God. That darkness that we wander in. It's

that darkness that we can't find our direction in. In

First John, chapter two, verse eleven, it says, but he

who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness.

Listen to what walking in darkness does, And he does

not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded

his eyes.

That the darkness that fills.

The world keeps us from our purpose and our destiny,

that thing that we were born to do, that thing

that brings life and excitement and vitality. I don't know

about you, but you know there's there's times when I

get my eyes off of what God.

Really wants for me to do.

I just don't feel as excited and sharp as I do.

Sometimes.

Have you ever been there when the alarm clock goes

off and you're not done sleeping, and it's like, I

just don't really know that there's anything I'd rather do

this sleep.

Come on, somebody, you know.

That's why we have alarm clocks, right, because we're not

done sleeping yet.

But when we understand.

The purpose what God's called us to do, we can't

wait for the next day to happen, because there's always

something great. There's an piece of that journey, there's another

another thing to grasp and another thing to do for

the Lord. Were wait with baited anticipation for that very

next kingdom connection, those people that God will send into

our lives. But when we are filled with darkness, we're

wandering around and we don't really know which direction to go.

We often talk about the Bible being our compass or

our road map, and we look at those things, but

if you're in darkness, you can't read your compass either,

and we get so sidetracked and we chase this or that,

and we often even find ourselves chasing things that seem

godly on the outside, but they're not really godly, they're

just busyness that we call kingdom activity. But the true

purpose of Christmas is that hope would be born in

our lives. See, he came to beat back the darkness

that keeps us from our destiny, from our purpose. And

that purpose always includes others. It always includes the graciousness

and generosity towards the people around us. And we struggle

so many times because we don't really know or understand

that the whole purpose of this season was to bring

hope to humanity. That Jesus Christ, the Hope of Glory,

was born as a baby, not because we want to.

Paint a picture.

I mean, you know, there's some cute pictures of baby Jesus, right,

But it wasn't about the painting.

It wasn't about the picture.

It was that child and the immense destiny that laid

before him, and not just his, but all of our

destiny that rested upon the innocence in that manger that day,

the very embodiment of hope lying among those animals stable,

that hope that we can't find in and of ourselves.

We've diminished this word so much. I think that the

two most perverted words.

That we have.

In our language, and how we talk is love and hope.

We love everything and we hope everything. Come on, somebody,

you know we love spaghetti. Come on, we love cookies, we.

Love all those things.

And every time we use that word and it means

anything less than what God has called us to, it

just diminishes a little more and forms just a little

bit more.

Of a love callous. It's the same way with hope.

We spend our lives walking around and when someone's struggling,

we just simply say, I hope you feel better. I

hope you get a better job. I hope you get

a raise.

I hope they come back. I hope this, I hope that.

But the reality is that the word hope doesn't mean

anything apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. See, He is

the Word, and the word is the blueprint of our faith.

Hope is the blueprint of our.

Faith that we want to believe, we want to achieve

great things. But until we really allow hope to be

born in our hearts, the whole purpose of Christmas, then

we never experience that life changing faith. Those raise your

hand if you know somebody that it just seems like

they walk around and they just have world changing faith

all the time. It's just, you know, it's just like, oh,

my good I wish when I grow up, I want

to be like him. The secret to world changing faith

is not to have more faith, it's to understand hope.

And where hope is. Hope is in the word. Hope

is in the embodiment of the word. So I don't

hope you feel better. My hope is in the fact

that by his stripes we were healed. My hope is

in the fact that he is Jehovah, rothy God, my healer.

My hope is not that you get a new job

or that things go well. My hope is in the

fact that I will prosper and be in health even as.

My soul prospers.

See, our hope is very foundation it's very foundational. It's

very structured, and it exists already. It's not something we're

trying to find. It's something that's already there. It's something

that was born two thousand years ago on Christmas. Now,

I know that there are probably many theologians watching, especially

watching online, just waiting to get into comments to say

that Jesus wasn't really born on December twenty fifth, And

I can't argue that point because I wasn't there. I mean,

I'm getting grayer, but I'm not getting I'm never gonna

I don't.

Stretch back that far.

But the reality is, it doesn't matter when he was

actually born. What matters is the fact that this is

the time we choose to celebrate the birth of hope.

This is the time we celebrate the birth of hope.

And it is.

Not surprising that this is also the time that the

enemy works the hardest to try to diminish hope. Because

truth be known, the enemy never really can derail anything

that God's doing once that momentum begins to go.

Once the momentum.

Begins and we start chasing our purpose and our destiny

and we get to that place in life, the enemy

can do very little to derail God's planing once we

get on it.

He had rather abort.

The purpose before the purpose becomes born. So it's no

wonder that right now many of you are sitting here

at five point thirty on Christmas Eve, East Coast time,

that you're sitting here and you are stressed out because

you don't know if you're going to get home in

time to fill in the blank.

You don't know if you left the oven on. You

don't know if you left the iron on.

You're stressed out because you know January the fourth, the

credit card builds coming that you finance Christmas on. Come on, somebody,

and the enemy's working hard against your hope, because if

he can rob you of your hope during this season,

he can certainly rob you of your hope in July

when everything is hot and we're not thinking about the birth.

Of Jesus but the whole reason for the birth.

And I know that, and I've even preached it that

there had to be a birth before there could be

a death. But let's face it, God can do anything

he wants to do.

Amen.

Adam was not born of a woman. God just put

him here, and he could have done it again if

he chose. But he chose to allow hope to be

born because it was his plan, and his plan in

your life is for you not to be overwhelmed by

the situations and circumstances of life, but to live in

hope that sets you free from the cares that everybody

else is bound by.

Hope, the promise that tomorrow.

Could be better than today. In Romans chapter five, verse five,

it says, now, hope does not disappoint, because the love

of God has been has been poured out in our

hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has given it to us.

Hope does not disappoint. So you guys can come and

get ready. Hope does not disappoint. I said, I wasn't

going to tell any stories today, but I'm going to

tell one. I was young in my ministry and I

went into the hospital. It's one of the few times

that my pastor sent me to the hospital by myself

because he knew how bad I was at it. Come on, somebody,

I mean, Pastor Gary. He always said he was mentoring me,

but I think he was just a red to let

me go by myself. And I remember walking into this

hospital room and everybody was weeping and crying, and everybody

was just overwhelmed by the situation and the circumstance. And

you know me, I'm just my like my anointing is joy.

That's just the thing that I do. And I went

in and I started praying faith and speaking faith and

being joyful and laughing and you know, all these things.

And while I was doing that, another pastor in town

had walked into the room because the person that was

in the hospital's children went to his church, and you know,

we and he said, hey, do you mind if I pray?

And I'm like no, he am man, go ahead, go ahead,

And he started praying, and like he wanted the lady

to die right then. His prayer was like, Lord, he

knows she's close, Just ease her transition to you. And

I'm thinking, you want to just turn the machine off. God,

just as she passes and transitions over into your hands,

just comfort the family and be with the family. And

I'm thinking, my goodness, man, you have just absolutely changed

the environment.

And when I walked out of the room, he walked out.

With me, and he walked up beside me and he said, son,

I know you haven't been doing this very long. And

I thought, I don't think you have either, and he said,

but this is one thing you never need to give

people false hope.

It cook me.

I mean a couple of minutes to just process that.

I didn't same thing. We got off the elevator. I

looked at him and I said, I don't understand. I

don't understand what false hope is. And he said, well,

you don't want people to think that there's gonna be

a different outcome because it might embarrass God. I thought, well,

if I can embarrass God, that's I'm pretty powerful if

I can embarrass God. And I said, right, yeah, But

I said, you know, I don't know that false hope exists,

because anything that gives hope is real hope. If hope

is born, it's real. It's not false, it's it's real.

And and hope energizes faith. Hope brings faith. Now, could

could she pass away before I get to the car?

Yes? But is that false hope?

No, because it is the esis of our faith, and

our faith is the currency of the kingdom.

Because see faith.

And hope, they never disappoint, They never let you down

that no matter what you've lost, that no matter what

you've encountered, that no matter what you will face tomorrow,

hope will not disappoint.

Because hope was born in a.

Manger, God clothed in skin, and he is all we

have in the most difficult times. And there is nothing

faults about him and his promises. His promises are yes

and amen. And the word became flesh, and he dwelt

among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of

the only begotten, of the Father, full of grace and

full of truth. Do you do me a favorite? It

might just bow your heads, to close your eyes for

just a moment. And if you're here tonight and you're

facing something difficult, you got some uncertainty, you feel overwhelmed,

you're sad, you're lonely, whatever those things are. But you

could use a little hope right now. If that's you,

just slip over your head. So that's me, pastor, I

just just not feeling the way I want to feel.

Amen.

Amen, Amen, Amen, Father, birth hope and every heart and

every life.

Father, allow your children to experience your son.

And Hope be born in such a powerful, significant way.

That it changes us forever. Lord Jesus, we love you,

and we thank you in your name, We believe and

we pray. Amen. If you're here and you've never asked

Jesus to be the Lord.

Of your life, never asking to forgive you of your sins,

but today you want to do that. Today you want

to trust Jesus. Before you leave today, I want you

to come and find me. I'll be standing right back

there somewhere, and I want to have a personal conversation

and a personal prayer with you today. Please don't leave

until you know things are right between you and the Lord.

Whatever we need to do, I want that to be

a reality for you. Everybody's staying with me all over

the room. Press Clay, you're ready to see. I kind

of left on a lope. Can you pick everybody.

Back up and I can get everybody excited. Oh, it's

you and y'all don't have to worry, it's hers. You'll

do good. She's as sad decenter of fiddle. She is

a sad the ser of it.