Just Hanging On

To all of you joining at all of our different locations, to

those of you watching online and inside, from our family to

yours, Merry Christmas. I also want to wish a very

special Merry Christmas to our newest location launching right

now in Weaver, Iowa. I'm getting reports that it is

standing room only in that place right now.

To those of you in Weaver, we have been praying for you.

We have been rooting for you. And we are in your corner as you

try to make that region the hardest place on planet Earth to

get the hell from. And we are so glad to have you a

part of this community of believers.

They are some of the very best people on planet Earth.

Now, when it comes to Christmas, I believe that all people fall

into one of three categories, and I'm going to have you

identify which category you are in before I tell you whether or

not you are wrong. No lying if you are the first

group of people are the people who they decorate their house

for Christmas. They decorate the outside, they

decorate the inside. They go way beyond a tree with

some lights and some ornaments. They have some totes in their

house that they pack up all their Christmas stuff.

And if you are a Christmas decorator at all of our

locations, would you put your hand up so we can see you?

God bless you. We're so thankful for you.

If it wasn't for you, those of us in Group number two would not

have as great of a Christmas. Group 2 are the people who we

just put up a tree and some ornaments and a couple lights on

the tree, but we don't do anything with the house.

We just drive around and admire your handiwork.

How many of you are in Group number two?

God bless you. These are my people on my

neighborhood. I, my house is the one that is

the least decorated. Now there is group #3 these are

the people who decorate their house for Christmas, and then

they drive around and judge all the other houses where those

bold people at. You guys are liars.

OK, now to those of you in Group number two, it's Christmas.

And when it's Christmas, it's customary for there to be an

exchange of gifts. And I came today bearing gifts

to those of you who are in Group number two, or for those of you

who are in Group number one who want to save yourself some time

next year. There are a couple ideas that

I've curated over the years that I think might be advantageous

for you as you plan your 2025 Christmas.

Here is solution number one. To those of you who live next to

somebody who goes all out, all you have to do to decorate is

just put a little Ditto sign with an arrow pointing to your

obnoxious neighbour. The best part of this is you can

do this for like 150 bucks at Home Depot and your house on the

neighbourhood will be the house that everybody else talks about.

So that neighbour who's going above and beyond is just going

to get made fun of by everybody else on the neighbourhood.

This is a Gold Star move if you want to take it.

Now, for those of you who are going, I want a little bit more

of a festive arc to my creative decorating for Christmas.

I've got a solution for you. Check out this guy.

This person's a pure genius. Here's what you have to do.

You just have to get yourself a Grinch sign hanging out there.

Hang some lights, make it look like the Grinch is in fact,

stealing Christmas. And people are going to be like,

you're so witty, you're so clever.

I don't know why I didn't think of this.

Now, here's a couple failures that this guy made.

He put some of the lights on the roof, which means he had to get

a ladder out. This is not, We don't want to

decorate with ladders. Here's what he should have done.

He should have gone to Home Depot or Lowe's or Menards or

wherever it is that you guys go, and he should have just got the

lights, didn't even unwrap them out-of-the-box.

Just pull the box off, plug them in and just Chuck them over the

bushes and you're done. 30 seconds and you're the talk of

the neighborhood. However, one of my all time

favorite decoration stories when it comes to getting your house

ready for Christmas comes from an Austin family.

In 2018, they lived in Austin, TX and they decided that they

wanted to win their neighborhood Christmas decorating contest and

they went all out. They took a page out of National

Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. You know, where Clark Griswold

is clinging to the gutter on the second floor of his home after

he's been putting the lights all over the roof.

And this is what they created. This is a top tier job.

In fact, they did such a good job that a man was walking by

while everybody was at work and he saw the dummy hanging from

the roof and he ran to help. He tries to start moving the

ladder to get the guy to get the ladder in place, but the ladder

is he's having a difficult time with it.

He's screaming and shouting at the dummy hanging from the roof

and getting no reply. So he pulls out his phone.

He calls 911 and they start sending help to this house.

While he's on the phone with with 911, he goes out into the

street and starts stopping traffic to get people and help

him on his rescue mission. All of this is caught on their

Ring doorbell, and so they can see this entire rescue effort

going for this guy who appears to just be barely hanging on.

I don't know what's been going on in your life over the past

year, the past month, or maybe even the last week.

But I'm willing to wager that in a couple areas of your life, if

you were to be honest, you have a lot in common with Clark

Griswold. You're just barely hanging on.

You've been trying to do life right, and it just doesn't seem

to be going your way. And if you were to describe

yourself today as you sit here listening to my voice, you would

say, Clayton, I'm just hanging on.

Maybe for some of you, it's at work.

You have the best of intentions at work.

And if you're being honest, though, the way work has kind of

been going, you're just hanging on.

Maybe some of you are, you have the best of goals when it came

to your finances, but the way things have kind of worked

themselves out as the year progressed, if you were to

describe yourself financially right now, you'd go, I'm just,

I'm just kind of hanging on. For some of you, it might be

cutting a little bit deeper than that.

You have the highest of hopes for your marriage.

But if you were to be honest about what's going on in your

marriage right now, either you would say or you're pretty sure

your spouse would say, we're just barely hanging on some of

you. You had the highest of dreams

when it came to your kids and your parenting, but based off

the way things have been going recently, you're going when it

comes to my relationship with my kids or my kids relationship

with God, I feel like I'm just barely hanging on.

For some of you, it might be when it comes to your health,

you've had all the right disciplines.

You've been doing the right things and eating the right

things. But the recent test results came

back. And if you had to describe your

health right now, you would say, well, the tests say that I'm

just barely hanging on. Some of you, you remember having

deep, rich, abundant relationships.

But over time, things are fading relationally.

Isolation is setting in. And if you were to describe

yourself relationally right now, you would say, Clayton, I'm, I'm

barely hanging on. And the sad truth is that the

longer you hang on, the more weary you become.

I don't have to prove it to you. You guys already know this.

There is no hiding the fact that behind all the Christmas lights

and Christmas carols and Christmas cards arriving at your

house and behind all the presents underneath the tree, we

are a weary people living in a weary world.

Maybe that is what was in the mind of a French wine

distributor outside of Paris by the name of Placid when he wrote

a poem called Cantique de Noel in 1847.

The poem was eventually turned into a song that would captivate

a country, bring peace for a night in the middle of a war, be

banned by the French Catholic Church, become a rally cry for

the North in the middle of the Civil war, and eventually become

a favorite at Christmas Eve services all around the globe.

The song? Well, you already know it.

It is Oh holy night. And the first verse goes like

this. O holy night, the stars are

brightly shining. It is the night of our dear

Savior's birth. Long lay the world in sin and

error, pining till he appeared, and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope. The weary world rejoices, For

Yonder breaks a new and glorious mourn.

Fall on your knees, O hear the Angel voices, O night divine.

O night when Christ was born, O night, O holy night, O night

divine. It took me days to write this

message. Even though I don't know all of

you in an inexplicable way, I love you deeply.

I care about your hurts and your hang ups, your questions, your

doubts, your struggles, your pain.

I care about your marriages and your parenting and your friends

who don't know Jesus. And I know that there are some

of you listening to my voice right now and you are already

looking at the clock on your phone going when is this going

to be over? But I know that there are others

of you in here who are in need of something, anything, in a

desperate kind of way. Plus, he wrote this poem that

became a song as he was reading Luke chapter 2, which describes

Luke 2 · chapter mention

the birth of Jesus. And no wonder he begins by

calling it a holy night because this was no ordinary night.

Something special, something extraordinary, something

different, something special, something divine, something holy

about that night. You see, for far too long the

world has been and the world was wrapped in sin and error.

And we see that everywhere we look.

We see the pain and the chaos caused by sin, and we see it the

easiest in others. It's so easy to point out the

failures and the shortcomings in our politicians, in our bosses,

in our spouse, in our kids, in our friends.

However, the more mature of us realize our own failures, our

own shortcomings, our own sins and the pain that it causes.

Maybe that is why Placid uses the word pining.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining.

It carries with this this connotation of a deep physical

and mental decline because of a broken heart.

He sees no more than that. He feels the mental and physical

decline because he has a broken heart.

And maybe, maybe you do too. Then in one line, the poem,

which would become a song, takes flight from the lowest of lows

to the highest of highs. Till he appeared and the soul

felt It's worth. There are a lot of places for

you and I to find our worth. Some of us, we find our worth in

our job. The joy of the promotion,

finally getting the job we've been working our whole life to

get. And we find our worth increases,

Our responsibilities increase. But what happens when you no

longer have the job? What happens when you lose the

job? What happens to your worth then?

If your worth is in your job? Some of us, we find it in our

money. We find our worth is tied to how

much we make. And we enjoy the cars and the

houses and the vacations and the clothes and the freedom and the

margin. But what happens to your hope?

What happens to your worth when you don't make what you used to

make and you can't do what you used to do and you can't afford

what you used to be able to afford?

And if your if your worth is tied to what you make, what

happens when you don't make it anymore?

Some of us, we find our worth in our marriage.

We finally got somebody to agree to spend the rest of their life

with us. You got somebody to look at you

and say, till death does US part.

And then many years later, you find out that the math that they

were using was different than the math that you were using.

And if your worth is tied to your marital status, what

happens when you no longer have marital status?

Some of us, we find it in our health, but what happens when

our bodies begin to fail us? If your worth is tied to your

health, what happens when you get the diagnosis?

Maybe for some of us, it isn't our health that we're concerned

about, but we are definitely concerned about our looks.

And right now, I'm going to speak especially to those of you

in your 20s and 30s Enjoy it. You guys look great.

We're super happy for you. But I want you to know what day

is coming, where there's going to be a line item for makeup in

your budget, and the clothes that you like right now from the

place where you like to get them will stop carrying your size.

You're going to have to find another store like a farm and

home. Hi, I hope Carhartt makes these.

What happens when gravity begins to win?

All of a sudden you look in the mirror and what is looking at

you in the mirror doesn't look like what it used to look like.

The mirror hasn't changed. You have, and if your worth was

tied in how you looked, what happens to your worth when your

looks change? Some of us, we find it in our

athletic achievements. But I got to be honest with you,

I don't see a lot of 40 year old men going into work wearing

their letterman's jacket anymore.

I was talking to AD 1 football player who played a full with

played fullback and he had spent his entire life excelling at

football and it had led him to the D1 stage.

It was there that he had scholarships and he got

preferential treatment when he walked into the training room

and people wanted to talk to him when he was on his way to

classes and schools want to invite him in so kids could get

something autographed by him. But then in the senior year, he

suffers a career ending injury and he came into my office and

he was talking to me because he didn't know what to do.

For his entire life he had introduced himself with his name

and then he would talk about him being a football player and he

had never introduced himself without the next sentence.

And he was trying to figure out what to do with his worth

because his worth had been tied up in football and football was

no longer a part of his life. Some of you are listening right

now and you're going, Hey, Clayton, real quick, This is

Christmas Eve and we came here for a good pick me up.

We want to smile. We kind of want to get out of

here. And right now, all you've

successfully done is made us very frustrated and depressed.

Good. I wanted every single person in

here good and lost with the hopes that some of you might be

saved. I am so I'm glad that you are

here today because I want you to know this.

Your worth is not found in the things of this world.

Your worth is found in the fact that God came down.

And when you realize that God came down for you, you will

finally realize your worth. Till he appeared, and the soul

felt it's worth. Little Johnny was in Sunday

school class and he was learning about the Bible as you do in

Sunday school class, and the teacher was taking them through

the creation narrative. And so he heard the teacher talk

about how God spoken to the expanse.

And all of a sudden there were Suns and moons and stars and

galaxies, and God continued to speak.

And there was water and there was land, and there were birds

and there were fish and there were animals.

And then God went about making man, and he spooled the dust

together and breathed into his nostrils, and Adam became a

living being. And then God went to make Eve

Adam's wife, and he pulled one of the ribs that he had given

Adam, and out of that rib he made woman.

And Johnny, like most young boys, wasn't paying that much

attention. But he was paying enough

attention that day that later on in the week, his mom came into

the living room and saw Johnny laying on the floor clutching

his side. She could tell that he wasn't

feeling well. And she goes, Johnny, what's

wrong? He goes, mom, I got a pain in my

side. I think I'm going to have a

wife. You know what I love about that

story? It's because Johnny believed

God. And I want you to know Johnny's

not the only person who believes that God is who he says he is

and will do what he says he will do and has done what he has done

on our behalf. I believe it too.

That's why when it says in John chapter 3 verse 16, which many

John 3:16

of you know these words, for God so loved the world that he gave

his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall

not perish but have eternal life.

You need to know that when the Bible says it, I believe it.

I believe that God loves you and that your worth can be found in

him. And I know that there are some

of you right now who are going whoever.

You can't possibly mean whoever. Clayton Oh, yes, I do.

I believe that whoever believes in Jesus can be saved.

Why? I'll tell you why.

Because God said it, Jesus showed it, the Holy Spirit

sealed it, the apostles preached it, and I've seen it.

So can I talk to for just a second to all the whoever's that

are listening to my voice, to the whoever's who have ever told

a lie, and to the whoever's are living a lie.

If you believe in Jesus, you can be saved.

Your worth can be found in him that God came down on your

behalf. To the whoever's that are

listening to my voice right now that have been divorced, going

through a divorce or contemplating one.

To the whoever's out there. If you believe in Jesus, you can

be saved. To those of you who have

whoever's been a bully and to whoever has been bullied.

To the whoever's. To the whoever's who have been

abused. To whoever's are being abused

and to the whoever's who are being the abuser, God sent His

son down so that you and I could find our worth and our hope in

him. To the whoever's that are

listening to my voice right now. To whoever has been addicted, is

still battling their addiction, or is in denial about their

addiction. To the whoever's.

I came today to preach a very simple message to the whoever's.

To the whoever's who have had it all and lost it, and to the

whoever's who have never had anything to lose.

To the whoever's who have had nasty things said about you

online and you think that your value is based on what other

people have said about you. I'm here today to tell you that

your value is not found and what others people say about you but

about what God said about you when he sent his son.

And I also came to deliver a message to the whoever's are the

ones that say the nasty things. Your sin does not have to define

you. Jesus death on the cross can

define you and you can be made right and righteous in him.

I came to preach a message to the whoever's.

To the whoever's that are struggling with faith and doubt.

To the whoever's who have more questions than they have

answers. To those of you.

To the whoever's that are navigating depression and

anxiety and fear and isolation. To the whoever's that are mad at

God don't believe in him. To the whoever's who don't want

anything to do with him. To the whoever's who have been

running from God. I came to talk to the whoever's,

to the whoever's who have been hurt, still hurting, and to the

whoever's who caused the hurt. To those of you that are in

pain, and to those of you who caused it, God ripped open

heaven and sent his Son so that you could know your worth and

experience his love. No wonder the very next line.

And the song says, the thrill of hope.

The weary world rejoices. For Yonder breaks a new and

glorious mourn, because our worth is found in Him.

Why is this weary world rejoicing?

Why are we experiencing this new and glorious mourn?

Because on that night, that holy night, that divine night, the

thing that you and I and desperately needed came, A

Savior was born. And he is Christ the King.

And because our worth is found in him, the God who knows

everything about us, all of our secrets, all of our sins,

knowing everything that is wrong about us, knowing everything

that would make other people run from us, our worth is found that

God saw it and sent the answer to it and his Son, Jesus Christ.

And this new and glorious mourn exists because hope has entered

the world in 19 O 6. Reginald Fessenden was a 33 year

old university professor in Pittsburgh.

He was also the former chief chemist for Thomas Edison.

And on a Christmas Eve night, he did something long thought

impossible because of the utilization of a new generator.

Fessenden spoke into a microphone, and for the very

first time in all of human history, a man's voice was

broadcast over the airwaves. These are the words that he

said. And it came to pass in those

days that Cesar Augustus issued a decree.

He began in a clear, strong voice, hoping that it would

carry the necessary distance for other people to hear.

Shocked radio operators on ships astonished wireless owners at

home. Newspaper set slack jawed as all

of a sudden the coded impulses of dot dot dot dot dot dot dot

dot dot were interrupted by a man reading from the Gospel of

Luke and to those who caught the broadcast it must have seemed

like a Christmas miracle, hearing a voice somehow turned

into electrical waves and transmitted far away.

Fessenden was probably unaware of the chaos that he was causing

and the sensation that was happening to all of those who

are listening. Ships at sail on a dark night.

Offices. He couldn't have known that

women were rushing around their house trying to figure out where

the voice was coming from. After he finished his recitation

of the birth of Christ, he picked up his violin and he

played a song. And the song that he played, the

very first song that was broadcast over the radio.

Well, you know that song it is. Oh, holy night, I'm no idiot.

I know that there are some of you that are here today because

this is your church. I know that others of you are

here today because this is just how you celebrate Christmas.

You find a church and you go there for Christmas Eve.

I also know that there are some of you that are here simply

because your mom or your grandma asked you to and you just didn't

want to get into a fight before they got around to giving you

presents and this was like an insurance bet for you.

And we're so glad you're here. I also know that there are some

of you in here today because someone deeply loves you.

They've been praying for you. They invited you because they

see you and they know you're just barely hanging on.

And my biggest fear is that this could just be another Christmas

message and that all you've heard so far was dot dot dot dot

dot dot dot dot. But I have been praying for this

moment right here, that you would not hear my voice, but you

would finally hear His voice so that your worth could be found

in Him. That you could experience the

thrill of hope. That your weary world could

begin to rejoice because God loves you, sent His Son to die

on the cross for you so that you could begin an intimate,

personal relationship with Him. And I hope you'll do that.

We're moving to a time of decision.

To those of you that are in this room and to those of you who are

watching online who you don't yet have, what we would describe

an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I feel compelled to make you aware of two things.

When it comes to my intimate personal relationship with Jesus

Christ. I can tell you this.

It is the single greatest decision that I've ever made.

And I would also tell you that my biggest regret is that I

didn't do it sooner. And you might be thinking, of

course, Clayton, you're the preacher at the church.

Of course, that's your story. But your story isn't my story.

But you don't have to take my word for it.

I want you to take the word of the testimony of the people

around you. So can I ask a question?

And if you agree, would you raise your hand to those of you

in here who would say that the single greatest decision that

you ever made was making Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior,

and stepping into an intimate personal relationship with Him?

Would you raise your hand? You don't have to just believe

me. You can believe them.

And would you also say that the biggest regret that you have is

that you didn't start that relationship with Him sooner?

Would you raise your hand? Listen, you don't have to listen

to me. You can listen to them.

You might be going with Clayton. I have a pass.

So do they. So do I.

I've made some pretty bad mistakes.

You don't know the stories of all those hands that were

raised, but I know some of them. And you'd have lost a lot of

money on whether or not they would be showing up at church

one day. People would have lost a lot of

money betting that their life would be transformed and

redeemed and that they would have the newness of life.

I've seen them do it over and over and over again, which is

why, with confidence, I believe that He can do it in you.

And so before you leave today, if you've never started that

intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I want you to

know you can take a step today. You can come up in just a few

moments when the people around you stand and pray and some of

them are singing and some of them come to the steps and pray.

I'm going to encourage you to walk right over here underneath

that screen next to the baptistry and talk to somebody.

Ask the question that's been holding you back.

If you don't want to talk to us, talk to somebody who brought

you, somebody in your row. Talk to somebody who you saw

their hand raised and say, tell me your story because I got to

know. Can God do in you or in me what

he's done in you? To the rest of you in the room,

to those of you who have a relationship with Jesus Christ,

I love how the the first verse ends.

The song ends by telling us to fall on our knees to hear the

Angel voices. And would you spend just a

little bit of time praying to God and thanking him for his

kindness and his goodness to you and the person and work of Jesus

Christ? Would you stand with me?

God, you are aware of every story that's represented in this

room. There's no sin that's hidden

from your sight. There's no pain that you're not

aware of. God, you know what's going

through every single person's mind and God right now.

I know that there are people that are right on the edge of

making a decision for you. I know that there are people

that are, I've been contemplating it for a long

time, whether or not they were going to start getting serious

about their faith. I know there are people in here

that have found their worth in all of the wrong places, and

it's time for them to find their worth in you.

And so God, I pray that you'd give every person that can hear

me a clear understanding of what it is that you want them to do

and then give them the courage to do it.

In your name I pray. Amen.