Christmas is Here!

What are you doing, Merry Christmas. Christmas Eve is coming.

I hope you are planning on being here. One of

the things that I love to remind our church every

year is Christmas Eve services should be a regular part

of your family tradition. And it should be because it's

you pausing in the midst of all the craziness of

the holidays and reminding yourself what this is all about.

That this is about the moment that Jesus came to

our rescue. And we get to come together with churches

around the world and worship together and what will be

the second largest church service of the year these Christmas

Eve services. And I think it's important because we get

to be reminded what this is all about. Would everybody

by your heads, close your eyes. I want you to

repeat this prayer after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus, speak

to my heart, change my life in Jesus' name.

Amen.

For those of you that brought Bibles, I want you

to just go ahead and turn to Luke chapter two.

That's where we're.

Going to be spending most of our time. Again, if

you didn't bring a Bible, whenever I refer to Versus,

the words will be behind me on one of these

various screens as you're turning there. I don't have little

kids anymore. Christmas is different when your kids are little.

I don't have little kids. All my kids are adults.

I don't have any grandkids yet, but I miss the

excitement of little kids around Christmas.

As soon as.

Mom and dad wrapped those presents and stick them under

the tree, the amount of anticipation from little kids when

they get to open those presents is like you can

you can feel it.

It's intense.

And then once you let them have at it, in

fifteen seconds they've unwrapped every present under the tree, it's done.

I was thinking that at this moment in my fifty year.

Old life, the closest I have to the experience of

the anticipation of a kid opening Christmas presents.

Is my dog Assy opening his bark box.

Any of you have wave if you have a dog, Wow, Okay,

note to self, staff needs a dog day. Except my

dog would attack all of your dogs, so wouldn't be

fun for those of you that have dogs. How many

of you do the bark box subscription? So the hands

that are raised, we're the ones that our dogs. Everyone

else doesn't.

So Ozzie is.

Prepped for when these bark boxes show up. Once a month,

I die and I will see the box. We will say, Ozzie,

there's a bark box, and I mean that dog starts

freaking out.

It doesn't matter what is in there. He is excited.

It's like he knows bark box equals this is mine

and this particular year we in fact, it was yesterday

we got the Christmas bark box.

Some of you probably got it. So Ozzie was.

Spinning around in circles, all full of anticipation as I

opened it up. In this year, for the Christmas bark Box,

they gave a toy wine bottle. It was champagne. Same

thing when you're doing drink, it's all the same.

Uh.

So Ozzie got a wine bottle and an elf shoved

in a shirt that he is supposed to rip the

shirt off. It took Ozzy six minutes to destroy these

toys for us to throw them away. That level of

anticipation reminds me of kids at Christmas Church. Christmas is

our holiday as followers of Jesus. This is ours. This

is the moment we celebrate that Jesus came to our rescue.

This is the time we celebrate the incarnation. I love

that word incarnation, such an obscure word. It is a

word that you never use. It is a word that

I dare you this week to somehow rope it into

a conversation with someone at work.

Mention.

The word incarnation, incarnation is the word that Christians here

all the time, but no one knows what it means. Well,

I'm gonna explain to you what it means. John won One.

This is John's version of the Christmas story.

Says, in the beginning was the Word, and the word.

Was with God, and the word was God that he

was in the beginning with God. This is John's artistic

way of explaining and describing God. John is making it

clear that Jesus was and is God, and that is

the reason that you and I.

Are here today.

I love to remind you that we have all these

different people that are very diverse, from all these different

walks of life, that for the most part, we have

nothing in common that should ever make us family. But

what has brought us together is the greatest thing that

at just the right moment, Jesus crossed our path, that

at just the right moment Jesus came to our rescue

and he changed everything, and that's.

Why we're here today.

John goes on verse three and he says all things

were made through him, and without him was not anything

made that was made.

So John is reminding us.

Before time, there was Jesus, before anything, there was Jesus,

before the universe, there was Jesus. That Jesus was and

is God. And John is reminding us that Jesus is eternal.

Then he goes on verse fourteen and he says, this

is the incarnation. Part he said in the word became

flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory,

glory as the only son from the Father, full of

grace and truth.

That is the incarnation. What does it mean?

The incarnation simply describes.

When God became man.

This incomprehensible, eternal God walked among us. God showed up,

God entered our story. God became flesh and blood. God

became man. He was close enough to touch, to hear,

to see, we were able to be there with him.

This is the story of Christmas.

That Jesus came, that Jesus came to our rescue.

That excite meant that our kids have waiting to open

their presence or Ozzie has to.

Open his bark box.

Is the same anticipation and excitement you and I should

have every year at Christmas time, It's different. We remember

that this is the moment Jesus rescued me. For generations,

the Church has tried to build this excitement and anticipation,

and they have done it by having people celebrate the

weeks of Advent. Every week of Advent you light a

different candle, and each one of those candles means something different.

You have the candle of hope, the candle of peace.

This is actually the fourth week of Advent, it would

be the candle of Love, and then the third week

of Advent would light the candle of Joy. Three of

those candles are purple, but the candle of Joy is

the one that is pink. And even though today is

the fourth week of Advent, I want to go back

a week and I actually want to talk about joy

and I want to talk to you about the difference

between joy in the world and the fact that Jesus

came to bring.

Joy to the world.

I think there's too many of us we live with

joy in the world that ultimately we find out is fleeting.

But what you and I really need.

Is what these songs talk about what Christmas celebrates, which

is joy to the world. Now that candle in Advent

is pink. Here's a nice, pretty pink candle for you

to prove that I did some research. The other three

candles are purple and and purple means majesty, it means royalty.

It's supposed to illustrate the coming of the Prince of Peace.

It's also supposed to illustrate that you and I need repentance.

What Advent is to build up to is really Christmas Eve.

When we light the white candle, which represents Jesus, and

the weeks leading up to Advent, you're supposed to be

asking yourself, am I right with Jesus? In anticipation of

being reminded of Jesus coming to my rescue? Am I

in a right relationship with him? Some of you are

here today you've never had a relationship with Jesus.

Well, today might be your moment. There's others of you

You've gone to church forever.

But if you had to be totally honest about right now,

you'd have to admit I'm not where I need to be.

In my relationship with Jesus.

But that third candle, the pink candle, isn't purple like

the other three. Pink is a mix of purple and white.

In Latin, they refer to it as God at Sunday,

the Sunday of Joy, as white mixes with purple and

transforms into pink. We wait for Christ to break into

the world and bring real joy that, for whatever reason,

seems so elusive in our lives. The thing that I

know is that you and I we live and exist

in a real world where there's real pain. But at

the same time, hope meets that pain, and we look

for something better. When we sing Christmas songs like Oh

Come All ye A, Oh Come Immanuel, that word Emmanuel

means God with us. That song is literally us praying

God come and be with us. You see that you

and I, as followers of Jesus, we are supposed to

be witnesses of true, genuine joy. We are supposed to

show that the joy that comes from.

Christ sticks around.

It's there in the best of times, it's there in

the worst of times. I think part of joy is

realizing it isn't supposed to be the way it is

in the world, like everything that we see, and the

disunity and the outrage, and everybody disagrees with everybody, and

people are afraid to share what they really think for

fear of repercussions about it. It's not supposed to be

that way, and best of all, it won't stay that way.

On Christmas Eve, I will read like I do every

Christmas Eve, John one to five that says the light

shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

In other words, Jesus is the light of the world.

The worst the world can do is still not enough

to extinguish that light. And if that light can't be extinguished,

then neither can joy. So verse eight the famous Christmas story.

You've heard it, but let me read it because I'm

supposed to.

So. Then there were.

Shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over

their flocks.

At night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the

glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said, do not be afraid.

I bring you good news that will cause great joy

for all people. For today in the town of David,

a savior has been born to you.

He is the Messiah, He is the Lord.

This good news of great joy that will bring Jesus.

Notice that when this.

Is announced, it led to a huge celebration when we

light the candle of joy? Where are you looking for joy?

Where do you find your joy? Are you looking for

joy in the world or are you looking for the

joy to the world. It's eezy to understand joy in

the world. Christmas is everywhere, lights on holmes, music playing everywhere,

thinking about the we love. What does joy in the

world look like? It looks like lights on homes. How

many of you have.

Your house decorated with lights?

The rest of you that didn't raise your hand, you

don't have joy. There's lights on Christmas tree, the most

famous Christmas tree probably in America, the Rockefeller Tree. There's

family Christmas cards. How many of you still do old

school Christmas cards? The rest of you I don't either.

Here's something that brings me joy. Bob Rickey, the world's

greatest husky fan, decked out in husky gear. Here's something

else that brings me joy. In one month, we have

given cash over and above our tithe nine hundred and

fifty three thousand dollars that is, two hundred and forty

two families have participated to give nine hundred and fifty

three thousand dollars.

Now, I have a challenge for you before the end

of the year.

In the end, we believe that the money itself will

take care of itself. But what we really want is

every single person in our church to participate in the

joy of seeing this building be expanded.

We want you to experience that.

That's why we put no minimum or maximum on what

someone can give.

We just want you to participate.

There are over one thousand family units in our church

that give to Venture on a regular basis.

If if you use national statistics.

That means they say that about thirty percent of the

church gives regularly. So that means there's probably three thousand,

four thousand people that call Venture their church.

But two hundred and forty two.

Families have joined in in the joy of this miracle

so far. So I have a challenge for you before

the end of the year, before Christmas.

Join in this miracle.

We have families that have given as little as a

dollar fifty or as much as one hundred and fifty thousand,

and we view them all the same. We just want

you to participate. So that's my challenge for you today

is be a part of this miracle. Even if you

give five dollars, be apart, twenty five dollars, be apart.

Just be a part of this miracle I would like

to see. Of course, I want to see us break

the one point five million, but ultimately I would love

to see five hundred families.

From our church.

Just be a part of this because we are in

this thing together. Have you noticed that whenever you put

new in front of something, it brings joy in the world,

Like you and I have joy when there's a new house,

a new car, a new cell phone. New magically creates joy.

My wife was sharing with me yesterday that I need

to stop magically creating this joy and stop buying new

the problems, free the problem. When we look for joy

in the world, it's always temporary. Eventually, the Christmas decorations

get packed up and January rolls in.

The weather's miserable, drizzly, gray cold. In fact, you've.

Gotten a preview of it this week. You realize that

the joy of Christmas can be fleeting. Eventually new becomes old.

You see, joy in the world is circumstantial.

It's only for a moment. It's only an event.

Eventually that thermometer will get to a point where we

will be reminded. We still need to raise up to

one point five million to do this. Eventually, Bob will

force me to take down husky pictures.

Joy in the world is temporary. It's limited.

It's only as big as we are. It's only as

big as the joy we can buy with our bank account.

It's only as big as the job or the promotion

that we receive. You see, joy in the world can

be taken from us. John ten Ten John Jesus said.

He said, the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.

You see, joy in the world is absolutely temporary.

But true joy, real joy.

Has to come from the outside. Genuine joy that we

actually celebrate on Christmas is joy that has to come

to us from the outside and transform us on the

inside quickly.

What does it mean to have joy to the world?

Number one? Joy to the world is joy that has

come to you.

It has come to us from heaven, and that is

the great news of great joy.

That is no limit.

Joy doesn't wear out, Joy can't be boxed up.

Joy never gets old. Joy.

Bob can't rip down joy.

That joy is powerful. That joy we found out existed forever.

It created everything you see, including you. That is joy

that has unlimited resources. It is not circumstantial. It is

not based on your behavior. This type of joy, the

joy from heaven that was announced as good news, great joy,

that is joy to the world, can't be taken from

you because the world didn't give it to you, so

it can't take it back. Since God gave it, it can't.

Be taken away.

The joy came to you, and that makes you valuable.

That is where your soul finds its worth. That is

good news of great joy. In addition joy to the world,

that type of joy resides in you. It not only

came to you, but it resides in you.

Verse thirteen.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared, with

the Angel praising God, saying glory to God in the

highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on who

his favor rest. You see surrounding this idea of joy,

Jesus coming to earth to give us forgiveness and value.

Surrounding it is this idea of glory. Angels, shepherds, wise men.

They're all giving glory to God. The joy that comes

to us becomes the joy that we ultimately value inside

of us. And the craziest thing is this joy comes

to us and then it resides in us, and then

number three, it begins to work through us.

So make explain it again.

Joy comes to us, resides.

In us, and flows through us. John fifteen eleven. Jesus

said these things.

I've spoken to you, that my joy may be in you,

that your joy may be full.

You gotta hear that one again.

I get saved when I'm in high school start going

to church, and immediately I was kind of overwhelmed by

all my youth group friends because they all seem so

sad all the time, and I couldn't figure it out.

I had gotten saved and set free, and I felt

this weight lift off my shoulders, and like, you know

how you when you first start going to church, it's

like you can't wait to be here and you have

this euphoric, almost like unexplainable high. You're like, how did

everybody else know about this? And I didn't know about this?

This is like the most amazing thing ever. But I'm

surrounded by people that are like bummed out, and it's

where I came up with a line as a high

schooler that I've used for decades. When I say this,

I say Christians should have, you know, joy unspeakable, full

of glory, like we should have joy in the worst

of situations. We should be people that don't make sense

to anyone else because while the world is fighting, while

the world is on the edge of war.

We have peace. The past is all understanding.

We are filled with joy because our joy isn't circumstantial,

because we know we're only here temporarily, but our eternal

home is in heaven, so.

That drives the joy that we have in our life.

And I said, uh, I started saying, I don't understand

Christians that are always sad and depressed. The world has

sadness and depression. They don't need to give up ten

percent of their salary too. That's the first sermon I

ever preached as a high school kid. Jesus is saying,

when you were filled with my mind, my joy. My

joy isn't circumstantial, it is not temporary, it won't fade away.

It is not limited.

My joy in you will overflow out of you.

And spill out into the world.

The joy of Jesus is full of love and value

that carries us through every season of life. And you

are gonna have difficult times. If some preacher grabbed a

microphone and told you that every time when you get saved,

you will never be broke, you will never be sick,

you will never have hurt, you will never have difficulty,

they lied to you, and you will have all of.

Those things.

With Jesus, which means you face all of those things

from a totally radically different perspective.

Good news of great joy, the type.

Of joy that imbeds itself in us as we stay

connected to Jesus.

People ask me. In fact, I have.

Friends all over that will say, you, guys, do an

adult Christmas choir. Take a Sunday a weekend in December

when everybody comes to church, and do an adult choir,

and then you follow it up in December on a

Sunday with a kid's choir.

Why do you do that? Brandon?

I mean literally that friends that are pastors all around

America that asked me that.

Also, I have some of you that ask me that.

Because I want to illustrate joy for you when you

see your friends in peers up here singing Christmas songs

that are praising Jesus. Did you notice that there was

this to joy that swept through this place? Then how

do you one up that spirit of joy? Get your

kids up here doing the same thing. That's why we

do it. Because I was asking my wife because I

missed those two services because of a prior commitment, and

I was telling my wife yesterday, I was saying, it

doesn't feel like Christmas around the church, and she's like,

that's because you haven't been around.

It feels like Christmas here, and uh, joy to the world.

Joy in us fills us up, and then that joy

works through us. Here's what happens next. In the Christmas story,

verse fifteen, when the angels had left them the shepherds

and gone into heaven, the shepherd said to one another,

let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has

happened which the Lord has told us about. So they

hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby

who was lying in the manger. Catch this part. When

they have seen him, they spread the word concerning what

had been told them about this child, and all who

heard it were amazed at what the shepherd said to them.

So the shepherds hear about Jesus and they say, let's

go and see. They wanted to witness this joy to

the world. And then LIFs start being changed as they

see the joy has come to them. And then what

happens next, This joy comes to them, this joy begins

to reside in them, and then they immediately run around

and tell everyone that's.

The way it should be.

If you sincerely have the joy of j Jesus inside

of you, if Jesus has changed your life, you should

tell everybody. We have Christmas Eve coming up in two days.

We only do two services. We probably should do five.

I know we really only do two because that's to

honor the staff. But they're going to be full. But

what I hope they're full of is your friends and

family too, because you told everybody. Statistically, we know this

that we are living in a world that is the

post Christian era.

What does that mean.

It means that there are less Christians in America than

there are those that profess faith in Jesus. But Christmas

and Easter these are the two sundays two services. Christmas

Eve is not on a Sunday.

These are the two services of the year.

We're the vast majority of people in America say if

someone invites them, they would come.

In fact, the.

Number is eighty five percent. Eighty five percent of people say,

if I'm invited to a Christmas Eve service, I will come.

The joy that has come to you, that resides in

you should be flowing out of you. That it should

be this natural response around this time to say, celebrate

Christmas Eve with my family. Man, we go to Venture

four five point thirty, we have two Christmas Eve services.

Come early. The parking is not going to be fun,

but that should be a natural response. You see, for

the shepherds, the joy that came to them embedded itself

in them, burst out of them. They went back to

their flocks, back to their routine, but everything was different,

and they had to share their story.

Because they were different. I bet people could tell though.

I bet people ask them.

I mean, you don't look the same, you don't act

the same, you don't talk the same.

What is different about you?

And then they get to say, joy came to me,

Joy resides in me, and I got to tell everybody

about this joy.

I want you to realize that.

During the Christmas season, you and I should become like

these shepherds, that the joy that came to us, that

brings us great value and worth, the joy that lived

in us, that connects us to Jesus, that that joy

should work through us, that it should overflow out of us.

Here's the thing I know. The miracle of Christmas is

that this is a moment where everyone in our region

is looking and longing for real joy Christmas for summits,

their escape from reality. But in the end everything goes

back to normal and that joy fades. What they're looking

for is the real joy of Christmas. And that's what

you and I get to invite other people into. Why

everybody by your heads, close your eye. Really, I have

two things I want to close with by saying, Number one,

you should be here on Christmas Eve, and you should

bring people with you. At the minimum, it should be

your family. Well, you should invite other people. But then

I want to ask you this. If you're here today,

you're new, You've never been to church before. But as

I'm talking about this joy that comes to you, lives

in you and bursts out of you, you are thinking

that Jesus that brings that joy. I need that in

my life. If that's you and you want to leave

this place knowing you have a relationship with Jesus. I'm

going to count to three. When I say three, I

want you to raise your hand. I also know that

there are some of you. You've gone to church before,

you've prayed prayers. But if you were to be honest

as Christmas.

Rolls are, you are not right with Jesus.

You are far from him and you want to say

PB today.

Man, I want to be right with Jesus.

I want to go in to Christmas Eve knowing I'm

in a right relationship with him.

If that's you.

When I say three, I want you to raise your hand,

So here I go. Don't hesitate one. Two, raise your

hand right now. Three I love it. Hands up everywhere

you can put him down. Would everybody do my favor,

stand up on your feet before Die comes up and

closes the service. I want us to pray together. I

ask whenever I do this, I ask the whole church

to pray because we're a family and there's been a

time somebody prayed with us, and this is your chance

to pray with somebody else. But for those of you

that raised your hands, I want to tell you there's

really nothing special.

About this prayer.

But if you pray this and you mean this, you

leave this place knowing you are right with Jesus, and

that makes it special for you. So I want to

ask everyone to buy your heads, close your eyes. I

want you to repeat this prayer after me. Everyone say,

Dear Jesus, I stand before you today, and I admit

I've messed up.

I've made mistakes.

But I ask you to forgive me, and I invite

you to come into my life and to change me.

I choose from this day forward to serve you with

my life. Thank you for forgiving me and for saving me.

In Jesus' name. Amen,