A Return to Wonder: Christmas Eve 2021 | Part 4

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.

Merry Christmas.

Good to be with you.

My name's Ryan, and we're absolutely thrilled to have you join us today.

You know, I don't know if it feels uh any more Christmassy than gathering together in the cool, brisk night, hearing the kids singing.

Um, you know what?

Uh having the heat lamps warm us.

These are amazing.

So, those who are online, I just want to let you know we're warm too.

Uh, you might be a little bit more cozy at your home next to your fire, but we have heat lamps lighting our way here.

And it's an absolute thrill to be together.

You know, this year feels just a little bit more special as um, you know, we weren't able to do this last year.

In fact, our team last year was driving all across the bay, dropping off experience kits for people to do Christmas Eve at home.

And I remember driving home, going to spend Christmas Eve with my family, turning on our service and watching myself preach.

So I'm really grateful that we're here together today.

And as we return to being able to have our Christmas Eve service, our prayer is that you would uh in this moment uh have a return to wonder.

You know, we've had a lot of returning this um, you know, Christmas season, a return to maybe some Christmas parties, some family events with friends, a return certainly of the chaos at the mall.

Anyone go to the mall?

Yeah, wow.

I hate the mall already, but wow, wow.

Just a return to all of the Christmas festivities and our prayer in this moment, may it be a pause, may it be a moments of wonder.

Let me ask you this Christmas season.

Have you stopped to wonder?

Have you just stopped to wonder this Christmas season?

To be in awe, to let your heart be captivated.

A.W.

Tozer once wrote this about Christmas.

He says, it does seem strange that so many persons become excited about Christmas and so few stop to inquire into its meaning.

But I suppose this odd phenomenon is quite in harmony with our unfortunate human habit of magnifying trivialities and ignoring matters of greatest import.

What if this moment?

What if this moment is a matter of greatest importance?

What if this isn't just an ordinary Christmas Eve service or this is just what you do, you know, in the holiday season or time?

What if this is a moment where God wants to meet with you?

God wants to meet with us to awake our hearts to the wonder and reality of who He is, of the arrival of His Son on the planet.

Now, in the first century Palestine, there was this deep anticipation and longing and waiting for the coming Messiah or anointed one.

Uh, there were these prophecies of old that spoke of this coming one who would liberate Israel, free them from the tyranny of oppression.

And so there was this angst and this longing and this waiting, and these prophecies spoke of this anointed one would come, you know, born of a virgin in the line of the great King David, and would even be God himself.

You know, every Christmas Eve, we had a tradition in my house growing up because my mom loves Charlie Brown.

And so we watched a Charlie Brown Christmas.

Anybody else?

A few of you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And if you've ever watched a Charlie Brown Christmas, you've heard one of these prophecies read by Linus.

And I think for some, that might even be why the wonder is lost.

It's because it becomes so familiar with the Christmas story, so familiar with the nativity that's wrapped up in our Christmas season that we lose the wonder, lose the majesty, lose the awe of the moments.

Would you listen afresh to what the prophet Isaiah said of this coming one?

He said, For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace?

Don't we need a wonderful counselor this Christmas season?

I mean, in the anxiety and the uncertainty what we what we're living in and living through, don't you need one who will come alongside and bring counsel and guidance and help?

Don't we need a mighty God this Christmas season?

In a world of turbulence and unknown, and nevermore have we lived in a world where we just feel like things are out of control.

Don't you want a mighty God who is greater than anything you are facing or going through?

Don't we need an everlasting Father, not just a distant God, an apathetic God, but one who loves you deeply personally.

One who brings comfort and care and security.

And all we need a Prince of Peace.

In the midst of all the relational trauma that's been going on and the heartbreak, we need one that will not just bring an end to strife and hostility, we need one, we need one who will actually bring healing and wholeness, don't we?

You see, Christmas is the celebration that the wonderful counselor has arrived as a baby on the outskirts of Bethlehem.

Christmas that's all right, I'll pick it up later.

Think about this, was laying in a manger to sleep.

That the everlasting Father took on flesh, that the Prince of Peace is Jesus.

Now, what makes this moment of greatest importance isn't just that Emmanuel, God with us, arrived on the planet.

Certainly that is true.

But what makes this moment, or part of what makes this so significant, this is incredible, this is amazing, is not just that God showed up to, but who God chose to first announce his coming.

To first announce his presence.

A significant part of what makes this moment of greatest importance is who God announced this to first.

Now think about this.

If you had this news, if this prophecy was fulfilled and you knew God showed up onto the planet, who would you like to tell first?

Who would be the person you would share it with?

Maybe it's somebody important that you know, a close friend, a close acquaintance, uh, maybe it's a dignitary or an influencer or somebody famous.

Now, when the early followers of Jesus heard who this was first announced to, when they heard about this, it was actually scandalous.

And it speaks loudly, profoundly to why God visited the planet and his heart for you and I.

You know, would you listen afresh to who God spoke to first?

This first public announcement, find it in Luke chapter 2, verse 8.

Luke 2:8

It says, And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

Shepherds.

You know what comes to our mind?

Or at least this is what comes to my mind.

You know those little precious moments figurines, right?

That's what comes to mind when we think about shepherds, or maybe it's some cute kid with a painted-on beard and a blanket over his head.

And this is what comes to mind when we think about shepherds who were first, were the first ones to hear this news.

The greatest news this planet has ever heard.

Now, shepherds in the ancient day were notorious for being the wrong kind of people.

Shepherds were social outcasts.

They had a dirty job and were considered fairly dirty people.

They were the kind of people that you avoided and you looked down on.

They were actually known, I mean, they were known for being uh cheats and swindlers and being kind of a rough and rowdy crew.

Think about this.

When God showed up on the planet and Emmanuel, God with us, the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, he chose for the very first people to hear this good news were shepherds, the wrong kind of people, a rough kind of people, social outcasts, looked down upon by the religious elite.

Why in the world would God choose these people?

Well, the angel's response gives us insight into why.

Verse 9: 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 to them, Do not be afraid, I bring you good news that will cause great joy.

Now, can you read this with me?

For all yeah, let's try it again.

It was okay, but it we can do better.

It's fine.

It's fine.

I'm not I'm not hurt.

I'll cry later.

And I lost my I'm I'm making fun of you, and then I lost where I was in the text.

I'm like, my it's so small I can barely read it.

I know, I'm trying to find it so I can pick up to it.

There we go.

Thanks, D.

Do not be afraid.

I bring you good news that will cause great joy.

Praise the shepherd.

Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you.

He is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be assigned to you.

You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angels, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds 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.

When the angel showed up to the shepherds, he said, I bring you good news.

We already covered this, that will cause great joy for all people.

We'll be here all night.

Think about that.

When the God chose to announce this first news, not to royalty in a palace, not to priests at a temple, but shepherds in a field.

The wrong kind of people.

As if he wants to go to the greatest extent to say, I am showing up not just for special people, not just for religious people, not just for the quote right people, but for every single person I have come for.

It's this grand declaration.

In a culture, in a society that said you had to look a certain way, be a certain way, and live a certain way, and only if you fulfilled those things in those order, in that order, then you were acceptable.

And the outcast had no hope.

And God says, no, no, no.

I came for them.

I came for you.

He came for me.

It's good news, not just for the perfect people, but for us.

A Savior has been born for you.

A Savior has been born for me.

God's favor rests on you.

This is good news for all people.

Even shepherds.

Especially shepherds.

A number of years ago, I got invited to this event.

It was uh at this incredible home in the Palo Alto Hills.

Um, this big, beautiful house set uh amongst a vineyard.

As a drive up, I'm pretty in awe of the place and uh you know, walk in the doorway, and we're in the grand living room.

Yes, it has a grand living room.

I just have a living room, they have a grand one.

And as I take my seat with the others, I can't help but notice their Christmas tree.

And right in the center of the grand living room is a twelve-foot-high, brilliantly white Christmas tree, perfectly decorated.

It's stunning, it's the centerpiece of the room.

I'm just staring at this.

And then the tree began to bother me.

And here's why it bothered me.

This beautiful, incredible Christmas tree in the center of this perfect, lovely, grand living room was fake.

Now, I'm not here to argue which is better, real or fake.

I've come to appreciate both as I've grown up.

However, then I couldn't understand why in the world, in this beautiful home, they would have a fake Christmas tree.

And then I realized why.

It is the centerpiece of the room, and they needed it to look good from every angle.

It needed to be perfect in their perfect living room.

And so, no matter where you sat, no matter where you were you saw this beautiful, full, perfect tree, all with the lights in impeccable placement.

And as I was looking at the tree, a wave of superiority began to kind of flow into my heart and mind.

Because I looked at the tree and I said, Well, that's a nice tree, thank you very much, but at least I have a real Christmas tree.

You know, I went all the way out into the wilderness of Home Depot to pick up the Ingram family Christmas tree.

We strapped it to the roof of our car, brought it home, and I kind of felt like just a little sense of I'm a little bit better, perhaps.

And then I began to realize my tree isn't as great as I thought it was because we we brought it home, and um, well, it's not perfect from every side, and you go, you real tree people know that.

In fact, this tree had a little bit of a hole, and so our tree's in the corner, not in the center, it's in the corner, so you put the hole in the corner, and then what we would do is you would decorate with the ornaments and the light to cover up any per imperfections on the tree, and then we would even trim the tree to help it, you know, be a little bit more symmetrical.

And as I was thinking about their fake Christmas tree that was perfect from every angle, and our real Christmas tree that we began to hide the imperfections.

I thought, man, that's so much how much how we go about our lives.

Some of us, some of us are working so hard to present this like fake reality.

Like you live this Instagram perfect life, everything's curated, right?

And you want to present to the world that you have it perfect, you have it figured out, and you you know, you have the perfect family, the perfect, you know, marriage, you go on these great trips and you see every sunset, and however your phone gets those sunsets, that's amazing.

But you present to the world this life that isn't really life, and on the inside you feel the emptiness, you feel the ache, you feel the longing for hope and peace and life.

And then there's others of us.

We're not trying to fake it till we make it, we're just like, we're authentic.

It's gonna be real.

It's us.

And there can be even a sense of pride in a world that's so surface-y of like, no, it's really me.

Just showing up.

But the truth is, no matter how authentic you are, not how authentic I am, there's always a part of us we hide, don't we?

There's always a part of us that we'll never really show because we're afraid if we really showed it, then we wouldn't be accepted, then we wouldn't be loved.

People wouldn't want to be with us.

Pastor and author Tim Keller writes this.

He says, We have a deep sense that we've got to hide our true self or at least control what people know about us.

Secretly, we feel that we aren't acceptable, that we have to prove to ourselves and others that we are worthy, lovable, valuable.

And if I'm honest, when I think about the arrival of the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the everlasting Father.

Like I go, I I don't necessarily identify with shepherds, I don't think I'm notorious.

And certainly being a pastor in Silicon Valley, people avoid you.

But if I'm really honest, I feel a little bit more like, yeah, I get that God would show up, but I don't know that He wouldn't come for me.

Because I know me.

I know my brokenness.

I know the hidden self.

And what's so incredible and what's so amazing is the gospel is this that God is so wild about you.

About me, and though we are hiding ourselves, and though we somehow try to fake it till we make it, God sees you, and He sees me, all of us, and He says, I love you, and I want to be with you, and I've come for you.

And the entire narrative of the Bible is one grand exclamation of the God who loves you, who's come for you, who wants to be with you no matter where you've been, what you've done, what you think.

Whether you feel like you have it all together or faking it till you make it, or you feel like you're at the bottom.

You know one other part that I like about the shepherds in this story?

It's just not that they were announced to first, is that then God showed up unannounced.

Have you ever had guests show up unannounced?

In fact, my I wasn't gonna share this, but I will now.

Um my parents showed up today unannounced.

Hi, mom.

And they came and it was wonderful, they're bringing by gifts, and if you're gonna show up unannounced, that's the way you should show up.

But we didn't have time to clean up.

In fact, uh, on the ottoman right next to the couch were my socks that I had taken off the night before as I was watching the Warriors game.

Hey, they won, okay.

Always gotta work in a warrior stuff curry.

Easter, Christmas, it never fails.

See, I love that God showed up unannounced because the shepherds had no chance to fix up their lives, to clean up their act, to somehow make themselves a little bit better.

It just was how they were.

And God said, I showed up right where you're at.

See, we have this internal thing that we have to somehow fix up our lives, this internal drive that somehow we have to make our lives better, and we know that with other people that like we have to have this incessant trying to become the right person, right person, right person, and we never quite do.

And so that's why we fake it, and that's why we hide.

And God says, I see you right where you're at, and I love you.

I see the real you beyond the curated filtered post, and beyond the hiding, I see every part of you, and I've come to be with you.

I love you profoundly, constantly.

The wonderful counselor has come for you.

The mighty God is not against you, he is for you.

The everlasting Father longs to welcome you home.

The Prince of Peace.

In this moment, with the anxiety and the hurry, maybe with the conflict that's going on in your home or with a relationship or just the dissonance of your own soul.

The Prince of Peace longs to bring healing and wholeness.

What if?

What if this moment is a matter of greatest importance?

That this moment is actually connected to that moment in the field.

When we look up and when we recognize that it wasn't just a moment for way back then, it wasn't just a moment for those shepherds in a field or for the first century followers, but it was a moment that he is the eternal, everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

And it's a moment for you and I right now.

Follower of Jesus.

Would you wake up to that wonder?

Would you wake up to that reality?

Maybe you have just gotten into a rut.

I'm just doing my thing.

Would you allow the wonder of the incarnation to captivate your heart afresh?

And maybe you're here and you've never realized that God loves you.

He's for you.

That you don't have to fix up your life, you don't have to somehow try to do better.

He came for you right where you are.

And in this moment, I just want to give you an opportunity to respond to the good news that God loves you.

Good news that God wants to welcome you home.

The good news that you can have a personal relationship with your Heavenly Father.

The good news, you are wildly loved beyond what you could ever imagine.

And if that's where you're at and there's something stirring your heart, would you just pray with me?

I just want to invite us all to pray as I close, but would you just pray?

And then in this moment, you can invite Jesus, who showed up in that day to come and show up in your life today, and he will.

Would you just pray this?

Heavenly Father, today I want to have a relationship with you.

I believe you love me.

I believe you see me, you know me.

And though you see everything about me, you still want to be with me.

Would you come into my life and make me new?

Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for coming to be my Prince of Peace and my counselor.

I need that.

And thank you for coming, not just for special people or chosen people, but for every person.

Thank you for coming for me.

Today I place my trust in you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

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