Christmas Eve

Hey, welcome and Merry Christmas.

We are so glad and excited to be celebrating Christmas together online this year.

And so wherever you're tuning in from, we are just believing that God is going to do really powerful things as we celebrate together.

My name is Brandon, and I have the joy of getting to lead help lead worship here at the Grove.

And we're going to sing in just a moment, but before we do, I just wanted to kind of start our time together by reading this passage in Isaiah over us as we kind of lean in and start to journey together.

It says this, Isaiah 9, verse 6.

Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born, and to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

We're going to sing these words in just a few moments.

And so as we just start together, let's just posture our hearts in response to the truth of Christmas that God has come to be with his people.

He has come to be with us, Jesus, Emmanuel.

Let's respond in worship as we kick off our time together and just lift these words up, declare these truths together as we begin.

And I want to tell you that I don't want to take for granted the fact that when I say Merry Christmas, that Christmas is really a merry season for everybody.

As a matter of fact, for many people, they might put on happy faces and joyful faces, but the reality is Christmas season is a difficult time of the year.

It's a reminder of pain.

It's a reminder of maybe a loss.

Maybe in the past year or somewhere in your life you've experienced some type of pain and loss.

And a lot of times when you sit down for that Christmas meal, there's an empty chair and it reflects on the person who's missing in your life.

Maybe they were, uh they left this earth this past year, or maybe it was it was long ago in your past.

Whatever it is, whether it's depression or difficulty, Christmas is not always a merry time.

And the reality is this year, 2020, for many of us, has been a difficult year.

We experienced COVID, a pandemic, a global pandemic, and we've experienced racial tension.

We've experienced the tension from an election season, and so many of us have experienced just a lot of anxiety, a lot of uncertainty.

And for the reality is that many of us, it's not a merry season.

But here's what I want you to know is that there is a Merry Christmas.

There is a hope, there's a peace, there's a love, there's a joy that really does transcend what Christmas, uh, the Christmas experience is about.

And it's found in the person of Jesus.

It's found in the person that we celebrate during this season.

His birth, his life, his death, and his resurrection.

Here's what I would encourage you with is that when you go past the surface and you transcend just the festivities that are associated with Christmas, and you drill down to the reality that it's all about Jesus.

That's where you find hope.

Now I love what the Apostle Paul says.

He says in Romans 15, 13, he says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

So by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.

And that's where we can find a Merry Christmas.

That's where what the good news is during this season, that we can experience love and joy and peace and hope.

And it's through Christ.

And so as we move forward into this Christmas Eve celebration, we're gonna make it interactive.

And so we want you to prepare along this celebration.

We'll stop in the midst of our worship, in the midst of looking at scripture, and in the midst of looking at the Christmas story, and we'll give you a chance as a family to discuss the meaning of Christmas and how we can find true hope.

And when it comes to Christmas, one of the things that always that I think about is joy.

Joy is just something that is common, it's synonymous with Christmas.

It just seems like at this time of year, people have just this extra festive spirit about them, and there's just joy kind of in the air.

But after a year like we've had with 2020, joy is something that seems almost impossible to have.

Joy seems like it's something that is not even attainable because of the circumstances that we've had to walk through this year.

But here's the thing about Christmas Christmas ultimately gives us the picture and gives us the promise that joy is attainable for us, not just at Christmas time, but really all the time.

That it's it's it's with us throughout our entire life, that we can have joy because we know Jesus.

And one of the great illustrations, one of the great stories of Christmas that shows this is the story of Mary.

Mary's this teenage girl that it has all these plans and all these dreams for her life.

She's got these expectations of marrying Joseph, and she's got pictures in her mind of the kids that they'll have and the things that they'll do together as a family and what life will ultimately look like.

But all of a sudden, as a young teenager, an angel appears to her.

And the angel Gabriel comes to her and gives her news that's going to totally transform her life forever.

Her life will never be the same, and all the plans and all the thoughts of what she thought her life was going to be about are suddenly changed in a moment.

It says in Luke chapter 1, it says, in the sixth month of her aunt's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth in the village of Galilee to a virgin named Mary.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.

Gabriel appeared to her and said, Greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you.

And then here's the response from Mary.

Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.

Those were the thoughts that went through her mind.

Confused and disturbed.

Her whole entire life was about to be changed.

All the plans that she had experienced and expected for her life were going to change in a moment.

That's how joy, in the midst of that, is seems like something that is not even attainable and not even possible when everything in her world had been turned upside down.

But here's the thing about joy joy is not something that we find in and of ourselves.

And joy is not something that is discovered in our circumstances and in the current conditions that we find ourselves in.

Instead, joy is something that is sent from above.

And in the very next few verses, Mary comes and she says at the end in verse 37, she says, For the word of God will never fail.

She ultimately comes to a point where she says that joy is from above, and that she's going to choose joy in her life.

That despite the circumstances, despite the conditions, That she had to walk through, despite her reputation being questioned, despite her soon-to-be husband potentially leaving her, she was trusting the Lord in the midst of her horrible, rough, difficult conditions.

And she was gonna trust him to be her joy.

If you jump down to verse 46 and 47, it says, Mary responded, Oh, how my soul praises the Lord, how my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

What incredible words for a young teenage girl to utter in spite of the circumstances that she found herself in.

And that same joy that Mary chose, and the same joy that was available to her, is the same joy that we have for ourselves.

That through Jesus, we can have joy despite the circumstances.

And that's great news, right?

Because of 2020 and because of the rough things that we've had to walk through, because of the pandemic, because of the racial issues, because of all the conditions that we find ourselves in, where Christmas might look very different for you and for your family this year, we can still have joy in the midst of the chaos.

Because joy is not something that is determined by our conditions and by our circumstances, but rather joy is found in a person.

And that person's name is Jesus.

Joy has a name, and that name is Jesus.

And so we want you to spend some time, just a few moments, with the people that you're watching this with, maybe it's friends or family members, just walking through some questions, talking about joy and how we can have joy this Christmas season.

I love the Christmas story.

I love the setting in history and how all of these specific historical details come together at the perfect time.

All these prophecies that are prophesied in the Old Testament happen and they merge together during this time.

Joseph and Mary are living in Nazareth, and there's the peace of Rome, and the Romans had built this system of travel where people could travel freely.

Caesar Augustus calls for a census where Joseph and Mary would have to travel to Bethlehem, their hometown, but also known as the city of David, to take part in this census.

And so here's Mary, an expectant mother, unmarried with her husband to be Joseph, traveling back to Bethlehem.

And Mary is carrying inside of her the Messiah, the anointed one, the one that had been prophesied to be the leader and the savior of Israel.

And now what most people expected during that time is that the Messiah would come and give political freedom.

He would come riding in on a horse and he would have an army behind him and he would free them from Roman oppression.

But Mary and Joseph had this baby, and they're both poor, and they're both young, and there is no power with their story.

They travel to Bethlehem and they get to Bethlehem, and because of the census and the time of the year and the historical event, it's filled with people, and there's no place to stay.

Let me read what Luke says.

He says, In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This was the first registration when Crinius, the governor, was of Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town.

Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

While they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, listen to this, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.

So I'm standing in a stable here on a farm.

He would be born in a place, certainly not a stable.

As a matter of fact, most of us that have children are born, our children are born in hospitals that are sanitized, that are clean, and it's sophisticated.

But the Savior of the world comes to be born in a stable.

Here's what I love about this story and why this is so significant.

Most of the time when we talk about Christmas, when I was growing up and people would come up to me on Christmas Day or the week after Christmas, they would ask me a question, what did you get for Christmas?

And so as a child, I would talk about all the presents that somebody gave to me.

What did I get?

So God chose his love, not by receiving, but God chose his love by giving.

And so Christmas is not about getting gifts.

God gives us something that transcends the gift that we get from our families and our friends and people in our circle of relationship.

God gives us the gift of unconditional love.

I love what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 5.8.

He says that God demonstrated his love in this way that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us.

That's how God demonstrates his love, is that the Messiah would be born in a humble stable, not in a palace, and he would grow up in humble means, and he would minister the gospel, and then he would give his life for us.

I love what John 3.16 says.

Most people are familiar with this verse, even if they're not believers, even if they're not familiar with the Bible.

And it says that God so loved the world that what he gave, he gave his only son, that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but would have eternal life.

And so the message of Christmas is hope, it's peace, it's joy, but it's unconditional love that comes from Christ.

A humble Savior that's born in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, because there was no palace, no place for Him to be.

And so the stable represents the humility and the unconditional love of Jesus.

And my hope and my prayer for you more than anything is that this Christmas, regardless of what's going on in your life and the craziness that's going on in our world right now, is that you would see the transcendent love of Jesus this Christmas.

And there's not a whole lot of accolades that happen until a great heavenly host show up and reveal themselves to some shepherds.

Listen to what it says in Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

It says, Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them.

They were terrified, but the angels reassured them, Don't be afraid.

He said, I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.

Now I love the declaration that happens here.

You've got the angel declaring that the good news is for all people, including the shepherds.

The shepherds were kind of the outcast of society.

They were not people that were seen as ritually clean, as they couldn't go in and do the ceremonial worship and the things that took place in the Jewish temple and synagogues.

And so here you have these angels proclaiming that there's good news for all people, that there's a savior that was to be born, and it's not just for the rich, it's not just for the wealthy, it's not just for the people of a certain class, but it was for all people.

There was good news for all people.

And so, as the angel made this declaratory state, the declaratory statement, then it said, I bring you good news of great joy for all people.

A savior has been born, the Messiah, the Lord, has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David, and you will recognize him by this sign.

You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.

Suddenly, the angel was joined with a vast host of others, the armies of heaven, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to those with whom he is pleased.

So all of a sudden, not just one angel, but a multitude of angels appear and they begin to sing out the song, Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace.

There's this declaration of peace.

And this word that's used here is the word shalom.

And it's not just a peace, like where there's no war, there's no conflict, but instead, it's a peace that means wholeness, completeness.

It's an idea that there's just something that's been fulfilled in someone's coming.

And so for this peace to be declared was an incredible statement that they could have shalom, that they could have wholeness and peace for once and forever in their lives.

And these are cut, this news is coming to the shepherds.

Now, ultimately, we know that the news was about the little baby that was born, that Jesus was the peace that can bring wholeness and satisfaction and fulfillment in our lives.

And that's really good news because we live in a world, like we've said, that is broken, that is messed up.

And for so many of us, we're we're full of anxiety and worry and depression.

We see suicide rates that have been elevated and are going through the roof.

And here we have this promise that Jesus, the Savior of the world, the Messiah, the long-awaited one, that He comes to bring peace, that He comes to bring wholeness and fulfillment in our lives.

And so when we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating incredible news that what we have at our disposal is that we have the peace of God, which ultimately in another part of Scripture, it says the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

It's a supranatural peace that is with us.

And the Christmas story gives us a glimpse into the peace that's available to us.

And so we're going to have a moment now where you can just take some time and wrestle with the peace of God and talk among your family and your friends and answer some of the questions about how you can have peace this Christmas season in your life and in the lives of your family and friends.

And it refers to the name Emmanuel that is often celebrated during the Christmas season.

And that word Emmanuel, that name Emmanuel, it literally means God with us.

And in the Gospel of John, he opens with saying, In the beginning was the Word, 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 not anything made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

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

And then in verse 14, he says, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we had seen his glory, the glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And so that word Emmanuel, it literally means God with us.

And that's what Christmas is about.

It's this idea that Jesus has come close to us.

God has put on human flesh, and he was born that first Christmas, and he lived his life, a full righteous life without sin.

And he did that on behalf of us to be a substitute for you and for me.

And then he gave his life up to be beaten, to be bruised, to be broken, and to be crucified on a Roman cross and to die a cruel death for us.

And that's where we find the good news.

Even in the cruelty of the Roman cross, it's good news because when he died, he took all the wrath of the Heavenly Father upon himself.

And then three days later, he walked out of an empty tomb to show that he, Emmanuel, God with us, had power over sin and death and the grave.

And that's where we find the love and the joy and the peace and the hope.

That's what Merry Christmas really.

Means.

That transcends even the gift giving and the fun and the festivities of the Christmas season.

Emmanuel, God with us.

Hope has a name, and his name is Jesus.

And here's what we really need to come to grips with.

Do we have a personal relationship with Emmanuel?

Do we have we had a personal encounter with this God that has come up close to be with us, to walk with us, to journey with us?

He can change us.

He promises that he'll come and live inside of us and he will give us a joy and hope and love and peace that transcends even the difficulty and the pain and the hurt that we talked about during this Christmas Eve celebration.

So I want to ask you this question.

Have you put your trust in Jesus?

The Bible says that God created this world perfect.

He created it with individuals, Adam and Eve, that had purpose.

They turned against God.

They decided that they thought their way was better than God's way.

And as a result, sin entered the world and the world is broken and humanity is broken.

And so God provided an answer.

We try to figure it out ourselves.

We choose to try to find hope and joy through all types of means.

But we end up just coming back to brokenness.

And so God sent his son Emmanuel, Jesus, to come and to live and to die and to rise again to give us hope.

So the question is: have you experienced the hope that Jesus offers?

If you haven't, I want to encourage you simply to admit it.

Admit that you need Jesus.

Admit that you have the issue of sin, that you need redemption, that you need forgiveness, and then to believe and trust and put your faith in what Christmas is about.

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And you call on the name of Jesus, just like it says in Scripture, and the Bible promises that you'll be saved.

And then you have true hope, you have true joy, love, and peace.

And so there's going to be a couple of questions for you to discuss that are going to be on the screen.

But as we come to close this Christmas Eve celebration, I want to make sure that you come to grips with that question.

Have you had a close personal encounter with Emmanuel God with us?

The hope of our creation resting in its mother's arms.

Ringing through the heavens.

So would you pray with me?

Something like this.

It doesn't have to be exact, but where you just say, Dear Jesus, I admit that I'm a sinner.

I admit that I have fallen short of your standard, your perfection.

And I need you to come into my life.

And I believe and trust that what you did in your life, your death, and your resurrection provides for my eternal life, provides to give me hope and joy, love and peace, and to make this a Merry Christmas season.

So, Father, I trust you.

And I ask you to save me.

And I confess you, Jesus, as my Lord and Savior.

Amen.

So if you pray that prayer, if you are taking the first step to put your faith in Jesus, we want to know that.

And so it's an easy way for you to follow up with us and let us know.

You simply text Start to Follow to 9700.

And that allows us, whether you are watching live or maybe you're watching this at a later date, it allows us to connect with you and to begin a relationship and a process and a journey to help you in following Jesus.

What a truth for us this year.

The truth of Emmanuel that God has come to be with his people, that God has come close to us.

And no matter what circumstances you may be facing or walking through this year, this year of 2020, we pray that you would take great hope and courage and joy in knowing that God is with you and he walks with you through it all.

And if you decided today to place your faith in Jesus for the very first time, we would love for you to do what Pastor Russ just said.

The text start to follow all one word to 9700.

And start to follow all one word to 9700.

And we want to just partner with you and connect with you and to help you take some next steps on your faith journey.

We believe that that decision is just the starting line and that God has so much more in store for you as you journey along your faith journey and continue to follow him.

And we want to be able to help you in that.

So text in and let us know if you made that decision.

And lastly, we just want to say thank you so much for celebrating Christmas with us.

We pray that you would go in the presence of Jesus.

Emmanuel is with you, God is with you, and we pray that you would go with him, walk with him.

And we believe that the best is yet to come as we continue to follow him together.