Christmas Lights (Week 1)

Well good morning and Merry Christmas.

We're finally in the Christmas season.

And if I haven't met you yet, hi, my name is Forrest, lead pastor here at Multiply, and glad that you're here this morning if you're new with us.

Myself and about a hundred other of us about a year and a half ago launched the work of Multiply Church.

And uh we are thankful to be in the house today, meeting in a movie theater.

We also have a future home that is coming soon, um, just uh not too far from here.

And uh I'm excited as we jump into a new series this morning called Christmas Lights.

Um we had a phenomenal week last week as we ended our bricklayers series, and as we as a church came together in generosity uh to um give to the Lord for us to flow generosity out from us, and I'll share some more of that about that at the end today.

Um but I wonder, uh, have you ever heard of the real life Christmas Grinch?

So uh in Parker County, Texas, uh there was uh a lady by name by the name of Dana Brock who was caught on surveillance by uh police stealing people's Christmas lights off of their house.

Now, Dana had quite a wrap, she uh had a lengthy criminal record, but uh she was found on uh not more than one uh surveillance camera that houses stealing Christmas lights.

She also most recently uh she stole a weed whacker uh from the garage uh of the house and a power washer.

And from her lengthy, lengthy record, she ended up getting arrested.

Uh she uh she just was multiple arrests, and so uh she stood before the court, the jury deliberated for five minutes and gave her a sentence of 70 years in prison.

Oh no.

Uh all I know is don't mess with Texas, right?

And don't mess with Christmas, huh?

Um there's there are plenty of folks that we think about uh at this season of Christmas, and I think it's hilarious somebody out stealing Christmas lights.

Uh I don't know about you, but I love Christmas lights.

Growing up as a family, we would all load up in the van and we drive to Louisville to some of the neighborhoods, or there's always all the crazy Christmas lights uh on all these big houses.

We drive through the neighborhood.

Anybody do that growing up?

I did that growing up.

Look at all the houses, and uh and we uh enjoyed that so much growing up to uh just get into the Christmas season and seeing the lights on the house.

You know, and and it there's really something special about Christmas, particularly in our country, that um Christmas is uh this holiday that's that is celebrated in our country around the world, and it also is obviously uh a holiday that is about Jesus.

And so you think about even in this country, there's some 300 million Americans celebrate Christmas.

And at the exact same time, millions of people in America will have a Christless Christmas.

You all know as well as I do that Christmas is now a time that there's so much going on with Christmas and traditions and uh history and presents that it's very possible to go throughout the entire Christmas season and celebrate Christmas at this time of year in our country, but at the same time for it to have nothing to do with the actual meaning of Christmas and the story of Jesus.

I think about for us, and I think about the neighborhoods and have Christmas lights all on them.

And you can have Christmas lights that are in your and on your house, but not have the light of Christ in your heart.

So I think about the neighborhoods that we live in, and I think about are we being a light to our neighbors this Christmas, a light and joy of Jesus that we're getting to share with the people that are around us.

Our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends.

You know, because here's what the the deal is you have an enemy, Satan, and what he ultimately wants for you is for you to not worship Jesus this Christmas season.

And if you do, he wants you to be an undercover Christian.

See, the enemy, our enemy Satan, wants us to stop caring about the meaning of Christmas, instead for us to be focused and obsessed with the schedule of Christmas instead of the significance of Christmas.

Y'all know how busy of a time this is.

And so as we think about what it looks like for us to share the light of Jesus with our friends, with our family, with our coworkers, and over the last and next over the next couple of weeks as we go through this series, as we think about showing the light of Jesus to friends, to family, and to Frankfurt at large, I want us to start by looking at the Christmas story, kind of the backstory, the behind the scenes, the backstory to the Christmas story.

See, most of the time when you begin the Christmas story, a lot of times it starts at different places, but many times it starts with Mary on a donkey, right?

But that's chapter two of Luke.

Chapter one, the backstory in Luke, the setup is that actually Christmas starts with the birth of another baby.

And that's the birth of the baby John.

See, in Luke chapter one, the telling of the Christmas story, it records the beginnings that the priest Zechariah, the father of the baby John, that ultimately would become John the Baptist.

He prophesied the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, that he would be a light, and that he would guide our path.

In the Gospel of John, John refers to Jesus as the light five times just in the first chapter.

And then as we're going to go through this series, we get to the place that one, we recognize Jesus as the light and the darkness.

But not only that, that Jesus in Matthew 5, he looked at us, his followers, and he said, You are the light of the world.

A city on a hill can't be hidden.

Don't cover up the light that I've given to you by being the light.

So the story starts in Luke chapter 1 with this priest named Zechariah and Elizabeth, his wife, who were Mary, the mother of Jesus' relatives.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

And they were old and without children.

And the angel Gabriel, who would come to Mary later, first comes to Zechariah in the temple and tells him that he would have a son, and that he's to be named John.

And that one day John, who would eventually be John the Baptist, would bring many to the Lord, and eventually would even baptize his cousin Jesus and point many to follow him.

See, the angel tells Zechariah about John.

He says, He will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is uh chapter 1, verse 15.

He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth, and he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God.

And then after this interaction with Zechariah, and uh Elizabeth finds out that she's gonna have a child, even though she's never had a child in their old age, then the angel Gabriel comes and visits Mary, and he shows up to Mary and he says and and exclaims to her and announced to her that the Lord is with you, this young girl, young virgin, and her response in verse 29, confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.

Don't be afraid, Mary, the angel told her.

You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.

And he will be very great, and will be called the Son of the Most High.

The Lord will give him the throne of his ancestor David, and he will reign over Israel forever.

His kingdom will never end.

Then the angel Gabriel goes it goes on and tells Mary about how Elizabeth is pregnant as well.

And Mary quickly goes to visit her relative Elizabeth.

Verse 39.

A few days later, Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea to the town where Zechariah lived.

And she entered the house and greeted Elizabeth.

At the sound of Mary's greeting, Elizabeth's child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed.

Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me?

When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.

You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.

You have these two mothers, two expecting mothers.

And the angel Gabriel comes and one to John, who would be this voice in the wilderness preparing the way for Jesus.

And the angel Gabriel comes to Mary, and then these two mothers come together to celebrate this miraculous work that's happened.

And they know that it's of the Holy Spirit, so much so that the filling of the Holy Spirit happens to Elizabeth that also the baby inside of her womb jumps for joy.

This angel that's come to announce good news to these mothers.

And for us as believers in Jesus, we get to announce the good news as well.

See, we get to carry the good news of Jesus on our lips this Christmas season.

That a Savior has come.

That it's God with us.

That's come to seek and to save that which is lost.

And I wonder if this Christmas could be a time not of only tradition, but of transformation.

See, I've seen it happen like this is when I think about sharing our faith and sharing the good news about Jesus in America.

And you can tell me if you think this is wrong, that's fine.

But what I've seen over years and years and years is as we uh as believers in Jesus, as we come to share our faith, that many times what that looks like for us now in 2023, going into 2024, is that we have to be smart about our approach as we share the gospel of Jesus.

And I've seen this time and time again that for us as we get to invest in people around us, as we get friends and family and people who may not believe what you believe, but you want to share the light and love of Jesus with them, the way that it happens, and I've seen it happen time and time again, is first that you make an economic investment in them.

That could be you taking them to lunch, buying a cup of coffee, followed by a relational investment in them, caring about them as a person.

Not just speaking out and just saying the truth to people, but for it to be connected with action of the love of Jesus simultaneously.

And when you do that, then it leads to, and it's almost like a guard goes down that they give you the permission to speak into their life spiritually.

See, so oftentimes we miss the fact that we need to be Jesus as we're sharing Jesus.

That the light of Christ should lead others to see the love of Christ.

That as you and I are shining lights in the darkness, that that leads for us that we would show love tangibly, that we would take action.

And I'm preaching to the choir because you know, as a church, we we we want to take those actions.

We want to lead with love and action.

And we're doing that.

But for you personally, in your workplace, the people around you, the friends that you have, you know, if you have anybody in your life who's skeptical about Jesus, that it's gonna take more than just you saying words, but showing the love of Christ at the same time.

See, I think it's funny that when the angel Gabriel came to Zechariah and also to Mary, their both first response was to be skeptical.

Zechariah was skeptical to Gabriel, and he said, How in the world are we gonna have a child?

Me and my wife were old, we've never had any children.

And Gabriel said, Hey, because you didn't believe, you're not gonna be able to speak until John's born.

And that's what happened.

Mary, when Gabriel came to her and said that you're gonna have a child, she also was skeptical and said, How could that happen?

I'm a virgin.

And Gabriel, in the light of the skepticism, also too, when you announce the good news to people about Jesus, we should expect we should expect skepticism at this point.

People have seen Christians act in ways that are so unchrist-like at times, that there are many times walls up in people's lives for us to share about the person of Jesus.

And so what do we need to do?

We need to be Jesus as we share Jesus.

We should expect there to be skepticism.

But in light of that, we should tell the truth.

See, around here we we we say that we embrace the tension.

It's one of our value statements.

We embrace the tension.

And what tension is that?

We embrace the tension between grace and truth.

The limitless grace of God and the truth of God's word.

And there's a tension there.

There's a tension there.

Because if we're just all about grace, then we may be tempted not to be biblically sound and to let things slide and call evil good and say, hey, well, it's no big deal.

Instead of us speaking what's true from God's word.

Maybe easy for us if we're not embracing the tension for us to say, Oh, you believe in something else, or you don't believe in Jesus.

Oh, that's you know, well, you know, it's if that works for you.

Instead of us embracing the tension, the fact that the most loving thing that we can do for them is share with them the good news of Jesus.

See, I feel like sometimes we've gotten to the place in our culture where the good news of Jesus bringing salvation to us, to some people, now it sounds like bad news.

But you know as well as I do that it's the light of life, that it's the hope of all creation.

Mary, this young girl who just gotten this news, she then voices a prayer, a song, and it's filled with deep theological truth.

This young girl, who likely had never been to school, likely didn't know how to read or write because she was uneducated, pours out in this song of praise theological truth after theological truth after truth after truth about her God.

That her spirit rejoice and God her savior.

How thankful she was that God took notice of her, a lowly servant girl, that all generations would call her blessed, that God is the mighty and holy one.

And as we fast forward in the story, the child John is born, and look at what's said about the birth of John in verse 65.

Awe fell upon the whole neighborhood, and the news of what had happened spread throughout the Judean hills.

Everyone who heard about it reflected on what the on these events and asked, What will this child turn out to be?

For the hand of the Lord has surely was surely upon him in a special way.

I just think it's so interesting and inspiring that the news of John's arrival, this miraculous birth that happened, that it then affected the entire neighborhood.

When God does things in our lives, when God delivers us, when God has saved us from the destruction that we would have deserved eternally in a place called hell, but instead Jesus came miraculously, and not only did he come, but he also died on the cross for you and for me.

And then more than that, he loved you so much that he gave you the chance to be in right relationship with God so that you could walk in light and perfection from now into eternity.

Not because of anything that you have done, but because everything that Jesus has done for you miraculously.

And when those that miracle has happened, and then when God provides and delivers you over and over again as you walk in faith in Him, that miracle is not only meant for you, but does the neighborhood know about it?

What's the word on your lips of testimony?

Do you now know how to just quickly share your story about what God's done for you?

See, what I highly recommend for you is for you to take some time and to write out what it was like when you first came to Christ.

Write it out to where it only takes you about a couple of minutes to share.

What was life like before Christ?

How did you come to Christ?

What's life been like after Christ?

Get that into a small, succinct answer so that you will have an answer, as the scripture says, for the hope that you have when someone takes interest in the light that's inside of you.

To be able to say, you know, this is what happened to me.

You know, one of the one of the one of the funny positive things of this whole trend of it's like, hey, your truth is your truth, bro.

Your truth, my truth, we've all got a truth.

One of the strange good things about that is that that means that our truth is valid as well.

The experience that we have with Christ, that we get to speak what is our truth that we know is ultimately the truth.

And that we can say, here, this is the truth.

This is what happened to me.

I came to Christ.

That might have been you as a child.

Many years ago?

Who are the people who played a part in it?

I hesitate hesitate to do this because I'm seeing a special guest here today.

Um I didn't know I was gonna be here.

But in the middle here is Max Doyle.

Um Max led me to Christ at a revival at our church.

When I was a young boy.

I don't even know if he remembers that.

But I came forward at a revival.

And Max talked m talked to me.

Through what it meant to come to Christ.

And it's special that you're here today.

I don't mean to call you out.

But I'm thankful.

My wife Emily also came to Christ at that same revival when we were kids.

This is what Max taught me through.

It's a simple ABC.

You may have seen this before.

For you to come to Christ, for you to share for someone else to come to Christ.

You ask them to accept what Jesus did for them on the cross.

To admit that they're a sinner.

That they believe that Christ died for them.

Not only as Savior but as Lord and bow to Him.

And C to confess your sins, that you can be saved and commit your life to Him.

Do you see how simple that is?

You see how simple that is?

You can share that with someone.

How is it that you can come to Christ?

What's as simple as ABC?

Learned that when I was a kid.

And you can share that with somebody else.

You know, it's Romans chapter 10 that says that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

Who is it in your life?

Who is in your life?

Who needs to do just that?

To confess with their mouth and believe.

Zechariah, the end of chapter one, speaks out a prophecy over his babyson John and also over Jesus.

In verse 76, he says of John, and you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord.

You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins.

Because of God's tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.

We church, we get the honor of the morning light of the breaking dawn, the light of the darkness.

We get the honor to amplify that light.

We get the honor to get to share the light of life that ultimately will lead to peace.

Now we're doing that collectively as a church.

You know that.

You already heard this morning that through our Frankfurt Forward initiative of us loving our community, that we just this last week have gotten to be a part of sponsoring Christmas for 52 children in this community who are impacted by incarceration.

We're going to get to come alongside Avenues Clinic, that's our Crisis Pregnancy Center.

Who are loving women and children in this community in such a unique way that we get to come alongside and we get to support them.

And if you have any questions about whether a baby in the womb is a baby, read what we just read.

That John leapt in his mother's womb.

That he was filled with the Spirit of God while he was still in the womb.

Look at the truth of the scripture.

And so we get to come alongside and be a light and a love to them.

You know, something special happened this week in uh in and through someone in our church.

Hayden Dunn, who you know and love, who leads us on the drums every week and has done lead us on the drums in worship every week for the last two years.

Um Hayden is a coach at Spauding University in downtown Louisville.

He's a strength and conditioning coach.

And this last week, Hayden stepped up and spoke and gave his testimony at their new FCA meeting that has just begun, that he and another coach has helped a sponsor to begin on campus.

And on Monday, three athletes came to faith in Jesus because he shared his story this last Monday with a group of athletes.

What I love about this is that uh Hayden's not a pastor.

He's a pastor's kid.

We got a few of those in our church, praise the Lord.

They've turned out good.

But Hayden was faithful to share his testimony in his place of work.

See what the backstory is there, is that they had intended and tried to get FC off the ground last semester, and the university said, no, you can't do that here.

You'll have to do it off campus.

And then enough students came and said, hey, we want this, that they finally acquiesced and said, okay, well, I guess we'll let you do that.

And the first week, 10 kids came, and the second week 20, and then 45 showed up to hear uh Hayden share his testimony.

You want to know why?

Because he's been the light of Jesus to them for years now on that campus.

Investing in them as a coach, but also the light of Jesus through him.

What could God do through you?

I talked about, just on a side note, I talked about another coach in my life last week, my friend Jay Cressop, who I talked about him and his journey with brain cancer.

And last week, him wanting to know whether or not and got a scan of whether his brain cancer had returned or if it was scar tissue, I'm excited to tell you that it was scar tissue and the cancer has not returned.

I'm excited to see what God continues to do through his life and story.

See, because what we get to do is what Zechariah prophesied.

That we all can be guided to the path of peace in the light of Christ.

I love what 2 Peter 1.2 says.

It's been a mantra pretty much for this year, in my heart at least.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

See, we get to be carriers of the limitless grace of God, his path of peace that is guided to us by the light that is Jesus.

And I'm excited as a church that we continue to do that.

And that we're going to continue to have opportunities to step out in faith to be able to do that together.

We had a great opportunity to do that this last Sunday as we stepped in generosity towards Jesus to church collectively.

And I'd like to celebrate some from last Sunday and the steps of faith that happened.

First thing I'd like to celebrate is that last Sunday there were six people and families in our church who trusted the Lord and gave for the very first time.

Six individuals and families who said, You know what, God, I am going to trust you fully.

I'm going to trust your word.

I'm going to trust your plan and direction for my life.

And they stepped in faith.

And I'm also excited to share with you that last Sunday, that uh collectively we gave from the cards and giving online last Sunday uh$89,060 last Sunday.

And you all know that that amount has been doubled by our sending church.

And so last Sunday,$178,120 came in for the kingdom of God.

You know what that's going to allow us to do?

That's going to allow us to continue to pay cash for our new location that we're stepping into.

It's going to allow us to be that much more generous in the community.

I was reminded this last week in conversation about the giving of the scripture that I shared a few weeks ago.

That to what to much is given, much is required.

That for us, the generosity will continue to flow through us.

And I'm thankful for God's provision.

I'm thankful.

The fact that we've been able to do this construction project that we're in the midst of and be able to pay cash this entire time is absolutely miraculous.

It's been a gift of the Lord.

And someone told me this last week that because of the fact that we've been able to pay in cash like that, that's going to allow us to be that much more generous in the community.

That's going to allow us to be able to shine the light of Jesus that much more brightly.

That we can walk in generosity and in light to share the light and love of Christ.

What Christmas light are you going to experience this year?

Is it just going to be a string on the house?

It's going to be the different parties and the schedule and the presents.

Or could Christmas be something more this year?

I've already heard this morning of somebody who's invited somebody who's never been to our church to our Christmas service that's happening on the 21st, and they said yes, and are going to come.

And you'll be getting invites next week to be able to invite people.

But right now, be praying.

Right now, be praying.

Be preparing.

Be preparing for what opportunity God's going to open the door for you to share the light that you have.

And maybe you're in the room today, and today is the first time you're even really considering what the light of Christ could be in your life.

Can I encourage you to ABC, to accept Him, His forgiveness that He purchased for you on the cross, to believe in King Jesus, to bow to Him, to repent of your sin?

And in doing so, that you escape the clutches of a literal place called hell, separated from God, and instead be saved in the glorious light for you to be in heaven in perfection with him always and forever.

And in doing so, as you've confessed your sin, that you commit your life to him now and into eternity.

Today, very well may be your day for you to make that decision today to receive Jesus as your Savior.

Would you bow your heads with me?

God, all across this room, I pray for every single person who's in the room today, God, that over the next few weeks, as we look at the Christmas story, that God, we would see the light that has come, this glorious light, to bring salvation and a light to the world.

And God, in doing so, Father, I pray, God, that every single believer, that God, that light would shine brightly through us, that God, that we wouldn't hide it.

But instead, God, that we would speak your loving truth.

Father, I pray, God, all across this room, that you would help us as we go into Christmas.

That God, this year it would not be traditions only, but it would be transformation in you, Christ.

That God, we would see you work powerfully.

And so, Father, all across this room, I pray for every believer that God, you would use them this Christmas for your glory to their family, to their friends, to our community beyond.

Father, I pray over the room right now, God, if there's anybody in this place today who's not followed you, that God, today would be the day of their salvation.

And so if that's you today, I ask you to pray and to receive Christ.

You can do it in your heart, in your mind, and your heart by praying something like this: Jesus, save me.

I believe that you're the Son of God.

That you are Lord.

Forgive me, cleanse me.

I want to be in a relationship with you.

I give you my life.

I commit to you because you gave your life for me.

Thank you for saving me.

In the strong name of Jesus.

Nobody looking around, head bowed, eyes closed.

If you're in the room today and you prayed that to receive Christ as your Savior, I'm not going to embarrass you, but I want to pray for you and I'm going to ask for you to, at the count of three, to raise your hand and to lock eyes with me so I can acknowledge you.

If that's you today, if you prayed that to receive Christ, at the count of three, one, two, three, raise your hand, lock eyes with me.

Yep, I see you all the way in the back.

Father, I pray right now, God, for those who are coming to you, that are believing in faith, that salvation has come today.

Father, I pray, God, that that they, Lord, would right now, in a genuine, from a genuine place, ask for your salvation, give their life, heart, and mind to you.

And in doing so, God, you give them true life from now into eternity.

We thank you, God, for how good you are.

In the name of Jesus.

Everybody said, Amen.

Church, will you stand together as we worship and close?