Christmas Eve at Awakening 2025

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Amazing.

Great to be with you.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

So special to get to celebrate and share this moment with you.

You know, I was thinking as a kid, uh leading up to Christmas, it just felt like sheer torture waiting for this day.

I don't know if anybody else had this experience, but the minute uh the tree went up and presents started to populate underneath the tree, it felt like time slowed down and just moved at a crawl.

When will it get here?

When can I open my presence?

Um, all I wanted was just a peek inside, just a glimpse to see what was inside.

It was just utter agony as a kid.

And here's the thing: not knowing is one of the hardest parts of life, isn't it?

Not knowing's hard as a kid, and not knowing's hard as an adult, too.

You know, as we get older, the things that we worry about aren't necessarily presents under the tree.

They're bigger things, they're heavier things.

The boxes change, you know, it's no longer a present under the tree, it's maybe the future box.

You know?

Will I make it?

What's gonna happen in the next 10 years?

Um how do I navigate the future?

Or maybe it's the relationship box?

Will I ever find my person?

Um, will this relationship last?

Will our marriage last?

Will we ever have kids?

Are we messing up our kids right now?

Or maybe for you it's the career box?

Did I choose the right career?

Do I need to change?

Will I have a job in five years?

Or maybe it's even the health box.

How is this going to impact and shape our lives?

Is this the way it's always going to be?

Not knowing is one of the hardest things in life.

And wouldn't it be amazing to get just like a peak, a glimpse?

And so any one of those, oh, I just would love to know.

You know, one of the boxes we all wonder about is this one.

Not really this one, but you know what I mean.

Whether you're spiritual or not, religious or not, we s we all actually wonder about the God box.

And the question is like, one, is there a God?

Is there meaning?

Is there purpose?

Is there beauty?

And if there is a God, well, what is God like?

Is he good?

Is he loving?

Is he kind?

Or is he angry?

Is he distant?

Does he care?

And then, okay, does God like me?

Not only what is God like, but does God actually like me?

You know, the claim of Christmas, we come to celebrate this every year, and for some, uh, this is your first moment of celebrating Christmas in a church.

Welcome, we're so glad to have you.

We're not in a church, we're in a cafeteria.

So close enough.

But the claim of Christmas is this that Christmas actually reveals that the God box has been unwrapped for all to see.

Like you don't have to wonder anymore.

In fact, John, one of Jesus' disciples, one of his closest friends, in the intro of his gospel, his account of the life of Jesus, he says it this way no one's ever seen God.

And that's the problem, right?

No one's ever seen God.

And so, like, we're filled with questions and wondering, okay, what is God like and does he like me?

And then he goes on to say this we don't need to wonder anymore.

No one's ever seen God, but the one and only Son who is himself God, and in closest relationship with the Father has made him known.

This is what John's saying.

Jesus has revealed God to us.

Jesus has explained what God is like.

Jesus isn't just, by the way, like from God or speaking for God.

Um, he's not just, you know, a good teacher or a moral example.

Jesus is fully God.

And Jesus, we see exactly what God is like.

And so.

So if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.

If you want to know how God responds to broken, messy people, look at Jesus.

If you want to know what God, like what breaks the heart of God, how he responds to pain and suffering, look at Jesus.

If you want to know how God feels about religious hypocrisy, look at Jesus.

If you want to know whether or not God likes you, look at Jesus.

See, the claim of Christmas is this this baby born in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, is actually the God of the universe unwrapped for the world to see.

And so this begs the question, okay, what then does Jesus reveal about what God is like?

When we look at him, when we look at Jesus, what does it show us about the heart of God?

Well, uh, on one occasion, Jesus was invited to a dinner with this religious, elite person, this guy named Simon, he was a Pharisee.

He invites Jesus over.

Now, in their day, they didn't have HBO or Disney or Netflix.

And so this was the event, this was the entertainment of the night.

Jesus shows up uh and they would have the dinner in a courtyard, right?

Uh and the town then would gather around and listen into the conversation.

And Jesus is sitting there at this table, and all of a sudden, a woman shows up.

A woman that everybody knew.

A woman with a past and a reputation.

A woman that when she showed up, whispers began to spread around the crowd.

In fact, Luke, who wrote the Gospel, Luke, he was a doctor and historian.

He writes it down this way: says, A woman in that town who lived a sinful life, learned that Jesus was eating at a Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.

This woman with the reputation, with the scorn of respectable women, perhaps the guilty secret of some of the men, she crashes the dinner party.

And like many Jewish women in her day, she would most probably have like a small vial of perfume, expensive perfume, around her neck, standing listening in to the conversation, overwhelmed, she begins to break down in tears.

Big drops of tears begin to fall, and Jesus reclining at the table, he would have been on his side and his feet behind him, these tears begin to hit his feet.

Drop, drop, drop.

And she does something that breaks all norms, all customs.

She undoes her hair, bends down, still weeping and crying, and begins to wipe his feet with her hair.

And if Jesus really is the explanation of God, this moment will tell us what God is like and whether or not God likes us.

Simon the Pharisee saw what was happening and he said to himself, if this man really were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner.

Simon responded with, I think how we think God responds to us, right?

Shame, judgment, rejection, condemnation.

Surely Simon, this religious leader, knows how God would respond to a woman like this.

Now think about this.

While the woman is weeping, this is happening.

The crowd is watching.

This is like one of those moments, like everybody's not even sure what to do, how to respond.

And they're kind of just holding their breath in this moment.

She's still weeping, still washing Jesus' feet, pouring perfume on it.

And Jesus turns to Simon.

He thinks this is a good time to tell a story.

He's like, Simon, I got a story to tell you.

And he's like, Go for it.

He says, Well, there were two people who owed money to a certain moneylender.

One of them owed 500 denarii and the other 50.

Neither of them had money to pay him back.

So he forgave the debts of both.

Now, which of them will love him more?

Huh?

So here's what Jesus is saying.

He says there's two people.

Both were up to their eyeballs in debt.

In our context, let's say one owed 50 grand and another owed 500 grand.

Both had no way of paying it back.

And both were going to experience the same fate.

Except for an act of grace.

And something had to show up.

The moneylender says, you know what?

I'm going to cancel it all.

Forgive the debt completely.

Can you imagine?

It's not just you don't need to pay me back right now.

It's not even, you know, do what you can and we'll make a plan, or hey, I'll cover part, but you do uh your best to cover the rest.

In a moment, in an act of grace, giving them what they don't deserve.

He says, I got it.

Can you imagine the relief, the joy, the burden lifted, and the future return?

And so Jesus asked Simon, now which of them will love him more?

And Simon replied, Well, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt, forgiven.

And then Jesus turns to this woman who's behind him and he says, Do you see this woman?

I love that Jesus asks like the obvious questions, like, Yes, we all see this woman.

Everybody's whispering about this woman.

Simon certainly saw this woman and he saw the worst of her.

He saw her past, her failure.

He saw her reputation.

Why is she here?

She wasn't invited to this moment.

And why in the world would Jesus let her touch him?

And then Jesus begins to tell Simon the things that he couldn't see in this woman.

He says, Simon, you know what I showed up to your house and it's customary, you know, to have water for you to wash your feet.

You didn't have that for me, but she has been washing my feet with her tears.

You know, I showed up and just the friendly thing, it's like a handshake is to greet one another with a kiss.

And well, you didn't give me a kiss.

She's not stopped kissing my feet.

You know, an honored guest, you're going to anoint with oil as they come into your home.

You didn't anoint me with oil, but she's anointed me with these expensive perfume.

And then he turns to this woman and he says something to her that stunned the table and the crowd around.

Therefore, I tell you, her sins have been forgiven, as her great love has shown for whoever has been forgiven little loves little.

And then Jesus turns to the woman.

The woman everyone assumed was the farthest from God, with no hope to ever be close to him, and looks at her and says, Your sins are forgiven.

Your faith has saved you.

Go in peace.

At that moment, the crowd begins to murmur.

Who is this who claims the authority to forgive?

Only God can forgive in their right.

Only God can lift the weight of guilt, shame, condemnation that haunts our lives.

You know, we're experts, by the way, at covering up our messiness, aren't we?

We put on a good show, we stay busy, we numb out to escape the ache of our soul for peace, the longing for wholeness, the desperate need for forgiveness.

But it's in the quiet moments, isn't it?

It's in the midnight moments.

The ache resurfaces, the regrets, the messiness bubbles up.

What we've done, what's been done to us.

The things that make us feel like damaged, good or even broken beyond repair.

How does God respond to messy people?

How does God respond to me?

Because I'm so often a mess.

Jesus is God unwrapped for the world to see.

Jesus isn't repulsed by your messiness, he moves towards it.

He knows every part of you, even the hidden parts you hope no one ever sees.

He sees it and he longs to bring healing and wholeness in life.

Back to John's introduction of Jesus.

John explains Jesus this way.

He says, Out of his fullness, we all receive grace in place of grace already given.

Let me ask you.

Let's just pretend for a moment if you were holding this box, the God box, and if you could open it and you could peek inside, how do you think God would respond to you personally?

I mean, what do you think you would receive from God?

You open it up.

I think for some.

See if I can get it to stay there.

I don't think I can.

It stayed.

I think for some, maybe a scolding.

How could you?

What were you thinking?

I've given you so many chances and still this is it.

Do better.

I think we would some of us think the minute we open what we receive is you're just a disappointment.

Rejection.

Jesus shows us exactly what you'll see when you open the God box.

One word.

Grace.

God's unearned, undeserved favor for you.

His gift.

God's gift of forgiveness.

God's gift of love.

God's gift of peace.

God's gift of salvation.

The greatest gift of Christmas is God giving himself to you because it is his grace on display, because God is not down on you.

He is not against you.

He is not what others have said about him.

He is Jesus here.

And he leans in towards you and he has come for you.

And when you call and when you ask and when you seek, he doesn't shout and he doesn't look down on you.

He says, Welcome home.

The greatest gift of Christmas is God Himself.

The invitation.

Jesus didn't show up to start a new religion, by the way.

It isn't try harder, earn your way to God.

Or even, by the way, it isn't even just to have a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling.

Like, oh, those kids.

Wasn't that fantastic?

Oh my goodness.

Oh.

That's wonderful.

But it isn't just that.

The invitation is into a personal relationship with the God of the universe.

To experience the love of Jesus, his grace, his healing, his wholeness, his forgiveness.

And think about this.

And so the same Jesus who looked at that woman and said, You're forgiven.

Go in peace.

Is looking at you right now in love.

And so would you receive God's gift of grace?

Maybe you feel like you're too broken, too messy, too far gone for God to ever want you or love you.

Maybe you grow up with a picture of God that looks nothing like Jesus.

And so you ran the other way, fair enough.

Maybe you've wandered away from Jesus and feel ashamed to come back until somehow you get your act together.

Or maybe, just maybe, tonight, for the first time you truly understand the meaning of Christmas.

That God loves you and his grace is available for you.

This moment, this moment is a holy moment, it's a sacred moment.

It is a moment that has the power to change your life.

Grace, by the way, is just a gift.

It's not something you can earn.

It's just something you can receive.

So as we close, I want to invite you to just open your hands if you're willing.

You don't have to.

You don't have to.

As a posture to receive.

Would you receive Jesus as the one who's come to bring life and healing and hope?

As a close, would you, if you want to receive the gift of Jesus, would you just simply pray after me?

It could be your first time, it could be your thousandth time.

Prayer is just a conversation.

Jesus, I believe you are God.

And I want a relationship with you.

Thank you for loving me.

Thank you for forgiving me.

Thank you for saving me.

Would you come into my life and make me new.

In Jesus' name.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded.

And hey, we'd love to connect with you.

Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.com slash card.