He Is Still Immanuel

What a great time.

Merry Christmas.

I just love to hear that.

So I want to just count to three, and I want you to hear you say that.

One, two, three.

That's just joy to my ears.

And you know, we live in a society, thank you, Nate, that celebrates Christmas in some crazy ways, and it can become just kind of just this weird amalgam of gifts and and just strangeness.

But God wants it to be more than that for you and I.

And I want to get very practical, and it's going to make sense as we weave into it.

But think about uh do you know somebody that's like near impossible to buy for?

You know one of those?

And how many of you are like me, maybe if you're a dad, maybe a mom, but are are really difficult to buy for because I got everything.

I I just don't really have that desire.

Well, this is I want to give you two pieces here, real quick.

One, a friend of mine came up with this little rhyme that that I've just taken, and I'm like, that really helps me share.

This is kind of what I need or want.

And it's something you want, something you need, something to do, something to read.

And I'm like, that really helps.

And I can look at it and go, well, something I want, I don't really want anything, but something I need.

And when I think about something I need, it makes me think about how much I've grown and how different I am now with the idea of gifts because I remember, do you remember being a child?

And do you remember getting a gift that didn't really, when you open it, feel like a gift?

Do you remember this?

I'll give you my favorite examples.

I would always just get all my presents stacked up, and I remember tearing them open, and I remember getting socks.

Socks?

This isn't a gift.

You don't wrap socks.

Why would you waste money on socks?

I wanted a present.

And then I'd open some more, and then I get underwear.

That's not a gift.

And now I know I'm older because now I open a package and I'm like, yes, I need socks.

Underwear.

Oh, this is fantastic.

This is the best Christmas ever.

So I know that I'm getting older.

We also know that we're getting older when we start thinking more about giving gifts than getting gifts.

That's one of the pieces.

And then when we really get to the point where we think into it, those most dear are like, what do they really want?

What do they really need?

What can I get them?

And my father-in-law is one of those who he's been super successful and he's got everything.

And so my wife last year, she said, you know what?

You and Kennedy, go to the mall, try to find something for my dad.

And I'm like, okay, we'll give it a shot.

And Kennedy are walking around, and we're just thinking, you know, who is he?

And what could be personal?

And what is something that he would really use?

And so we're walking through these different stores.

We walked into the store with all the team, uh, college and pro team stuff in it.

And my daughter, who was 11 then, she's 12 now, she's just like, Dad, got it.

And I'm like, really?

I said, for Papa?

She goes, got it.

And she pointed and she pulled and we pulled it down.

Uh he graduated from the University of Alabama, and he's a big Alabama fan, and it was this pillow, and it it just kind of you'd over and had a little piece of velcro on it, so it was there, and it had a little elephant head on it, and and it said Alabama, and I was just like, okay, that's I'm sure he doesn't have it, but uh but then I then I asked, I don't know why I asked, I said, Why do you think you would like this?

She goes, Dad, I go down the beach with with Nina and Papa.

And when they switch and she drives, Papa's always trying to lay down, he's like, Man, I gotta remember to put a pillow in the car, and I just wish I had a pillow.

And she goes, This is like the perfect size, the perfect size to do that.

And I'm like, what a good idea.

She goes, and and he likes Alabama.

And I was just like, duh, you know, if you if you know an Alabama fan, you know there's another, I think he might like him.

That doesn't work.

So he loves Alabama.

I'm like, you are right, and I went from, I had looked at the price tag, I went from like$38 for a pillow, and I'm like, that's ridiculous, too.

This is perfect.

It's the perfect gift.

And it was because he had this initial reaction when you open it like, oh, cool, oh man.

You know what?

I could put this in the car and I could put it in the back, and it would always be there.

And I was just like, brilliant, brilliant.

And as I look at Christmas, and we look at this story that Justin is so beautifully put, that so often we can become so familiar that we miss the true essence of Christmas from God's perspective, from his point of view, he right now is letting celebrate a time where he literally became Emmanuel, God with us, and he is looking at your life, my life right now, and he's going, What do they need the most?

What do they really want?

Where in their life are they frustrated?

Where are they lacking fulfillment?

Where are they desiring sin?

What is it about you and I individually?

And God is going, That's Christmas.

I want to become real in that way.

And as I look at it, God through the entire scripture leads up to this point, and he's just basically he wants to give us the way to that life.

There's some great simple verses in John 10, 10.

Jesus says, the world, the thief, Satan comes to steal and rob, kill, and destroy.

I came that they would have life and have it to the full.

And today, whatever is keeping our life from being full is exactly the gift that God longs to give to us this year.

You can pick an area, you can pick a topic, you can pick a struggle, a strain.

That's where God wants to work.

Well, how does he do that?

In Hebrews 10, 10, he says, and by that will we have been made holy or whole through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And God is looking, saying, I'm that answer, I'm the key to unlock that abundant life and that fulfillment.

But it was more than that.

It's more than just an instant, a birth of a child and a life of a man who made a sacrifice.

It's intensely personal.

Because not only did he give the way, he became the way.

And if I can explain it this way, it's another Christmas example that when my boys were small, they loved little Thomas the Train.

Do you remember that?

Or maybe you've got that.

And they had the tables and we're committed, we're gonna buy the table because they build them perfect for little kids.

They can walk up and play and build.

And we went, and I thought, okay, I'm in.

And it was about two weeks before Christmas.

And if you shop for the gift of the year two weeks before Christmas, you find that they usually don't have that gift.

And I'm looking at this table, going, man, and then I looked at it, I'm like, that's way too expensive anyway.

And then I got thinking, I can make this, and I can make it bigger, and I can make it more stable, and I can make it better, and I can make it cheaper.

And in my mind, I'm thinking, I could do this.

But here's the cool part of how it comes together.

So I drew it out.

I designed it with the sides and the board, and I went to Home Depot and I bought the wood cut to that size, and it was bigger than a Thomas table, it was more sturdy than a table, and I thought this is gonna be awesome.

My mother-in-law would end up painting it with all these trees, and it was way better than a Thomas table, but it was Christmas and I had to get this table done.

So I called my friend.

I'll call him Wesley because that's his name.

And Wesley, I I'll hit pause for a second because several of you are about to encounter Christmas.

Some of you have children of an age of a certain type and a certain gift that you will now have to put together some assembly required.

And it's great to have those instructions.

And if you're like me, you just kind of look at them going, okay, I got the okay, okay, I got it from here.

And you kind of put it together, and there will be spare parts.

I'm just telling you right now, there's gonna be spare parts, and you're gonna get to step 43 and realize that in step four, where you thought, I'm gonna do it this way, it just seems more logical that now you have to undo all those other steps and do that again.

And you're gonna start about 7:30, 8 o'clock on Christmas Eve, and you're gonna get done around 7:30 on Christmas morning, and and it's oh, and it's great to have those instructions, but it's even better.

It's even better.

And I even like I like Google.

Google, you can Google anything.

How do you fix this?

And it kind of shows you, but the best of all is when you have a friend like Wesley.

Wesley is a master carpenter.

And I said, Wesley, I got an idea, and it's for my kids, and it's for Christmas, and I know it's Christmas Eve, but could you come over and help me build this table?

He's like, dude, that's the greatest thing I've ever heard of.

Yes.

And he came over and he's he's measuring, he's got his measure, you measure twice, cut once, and he's measuring and he's going through it.

And see, I I had the idea, and I knew it was going to be intensely personal and fantastic, but I needed somebody who knew how to do it.

And see, he did it in ways that I wouldn't he said, Well, here's what you need to do first, and here's the pieces we need to do next, and here's how you need to do it.

Here's the type of screws, and here's how you put the screw in, and how you I'm just like, I wouldn't have known any of that.

See, I I knew what was great, but I didn't know how.

And that is Christmas, because God looked down and he said, I'm I can give you the truth, I can show you how to have life, but but you're gonna need me.

You're gonna need me to do it with you because I'm there.

So he not only gave us the way, he became the way.

It says in John 1.14, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, and he was full of what we needed most, grace and truth.

Because he sees where we are and where we fall short and what we are not, but what we could be.

And he says, I'm gonna be full of the two entities you need the most, grace, my grace.

I'm not gonna condemn you, but I'm gonna give you grace, and I'm gonna give you truth to become.

And if you and I can pick that area of life where we need it the most right now, God will give us the gift of his presence in it.

But we have to ask him.

See, because Jesus says in John 14, 6, I am the way and the truth and life.

No one comes to the Father except by me, through me.

We're not going to find that fulfillment, that abundant life, that joy, that gift to the soul of purpose and significance without Jesus.

And I love this is one of my favorite Christmas verses.

And that is that we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet he did not sin.

And that that gift lives within us when we invite him in.

If you don't know Christ, you know about Christmas, you know about him, realize that you're missing the essential peace.

It's him with me.

It's inviting him in.

It's not knowing about him, but knowing him personally and inviting him in.

And it's that same gift that he gives, but he gives a choice to all of us.

For those of us who know him, he's saying, Let me into your world.

Let me into your biggest frustration, your greatest need, your biggest hope, and I will give you abundant life.

But I want to do it with you.

Because he didn't just show us the way, he became the way.

I want to get to the point this Christmas where I am like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, 9.

He says, But in he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me.

My prayer and my hope this Christmas is that we will open the gift of God's power, that we will move from living with powerful effort to living in effortless power.

That God Himself is within me.

And God, I give this to you.

And I know that the circumstances may not be the way I hope and want them, but I know the end results is that your power is gonna rest on me.

Will we invite him in?

Will we let him be of that part that he longs to be?

And I heard a story last year.

I was speaking at a corporate event performing, and they said, we're gonna have a gentleman come read the Christmas story.

And I thought, oh good.

So I got done, and he stepped up and he said, Before I tell the Christmas story, I gotta tell you what happened in my life.

Johnny is an engineer, graduated from tech, and went into engineering, and he didn't work for the company that I was at.

He just lives down in uh Forsythe, down towards central Georgia, and he told the story, and I'm sitting there and I'm just blown away.

And I have waited all year to share this story because it was really happened to him, really at his house.

It starts in February of 2012.

His daughter, who had gone through a very difficult time, and she had just reunited and was getting remarried.

His grandson, Grayson, was there, and they're setting up in the front yard.

The front yard of their house.

And it's this massive yard.

It's like a from the house to the woods at the front of their property to the side of their property.

It's like 120 yards.

And they're setting it up, and he's there setting up with his grandson when they look down and they see on the edge of the woods an animal, a little tan animal.

And they're looking like, well, it's it's not a raccoon, and it was this speck, and they couldn't see it.

And they decided, well, let's go take a closer look.

But as soon as they started, the animal's in the woods.

And Grayson would say, Papa, after the wedding, can we go look for the animal?

And they looked and they tried and they they saw it again.

And they they saw it and got enough focus to tell it was it was a dog, not just a dog.

Now, I have a pug, so I feel the freedom to describe it as clearly, as accurately as it is.

It it may be God's ugliest creation.

I'm just I'm just saying that.

They got those bug eyes, and every one of them has a sinus problem, and it just, they're just ugly.

They're so ugly, they're adorable.

And they got enough to where they could see it was a pug, and it looked like it might be herd.

And Grayson spent the rest of the time visiting, looking for this pug, and they took food out to the edge of the woods where they saw it, and sure enough, the next day the food was gone, and it was cold, and they're like, wow, you know, what's gonna happen to this pug?

He says, Papa, we gotta get him, but they never could get close to him.

But he said, Grandma, will you take care of him?

And sure enough, grandma would go out every day, the 120 yards, put more food in the bowl.

That's just the way grandma was.

And she'd feed him and he would eat.

And but every time they try to get close, he'd run away.

And Grayson would visit for the next several months.

Every time he'd come to visit, he'd Papa, have you seen Puggy?

Have you seen Puggy?

That was the creative name they came up with.

And he says, I see him all the time.

He said, He's in the deep grass, but even if I look that way, he's gone back in the woods, and he won't ever let us come close.

And every visit, after every visit, Grayson would come and he'd say, I want to get Puggy, and he'd go in the woods and he'd look for him, and he'd take treats and he would leave them, and the treats would be gone, and he would get within about 50 yards, but that's as close as Puggy'd let him get.

And it was cold, and he said, Grandpa, we've got to do something.

And as Puggy would look, so they put a barrel out.

And they noticed they put it right by where the food was, and they noticed that Puggy would nest next to it, but he wouldn't go in it.

I guess he just thought in this little mind he'd been so abused and abandoned and neglected.

They're trying to trap me.

So he'd sleep by the barrel.

He'd never sleep in it.

And he lived outside during the coldest and wettest times.

So they put a cushion next to it where he would be, and he would they could tell he kind of nestled around that, but he would never let him get close enough.

And this went on for months and then years.

And years into this, living outside, Johnny would share with me, he says, All I want to do is help him.

All I want to do is clean him up and give him a blanket and take him to the vet.

That's all I want to feed him.

That's all we want to do.

And he said, but he wouldn't let us get close.

After almost two years, he said, you know what?

His wife was cooking her famous pork chops.

And I guess the smell had wafed it across their acreage.

And as they sat down at the table and eating, they looked out and she goes, Oh my goodness, look.

And there's a tree about 30 feet off of the porch.

And there was Puggy under the tree, the closest he had ever been.

And they saw it.

And he sat there and he thought, Today's the day.

Today is the day.

He says, if this doesn't work, nothing will work.

And he took a pork chop, an entire pork chop, not just the bone.

And he walked to the front door and he opened the door very slowly.

And he said, Look, Puggy stood up, but he didn't run away.

And he walked to the front of the porch and he stood there for a moment to let him know I'm not coming out.

I'm not gonna harass you.

I just want you to have this.

And Puggy kind of stood up and he's looking through his eye, and he gently reached down with a pork chop and he just tossed it to Puggy.

But something clicked in Puggy's mind.

They're trying to hurt me.

And he took off.

And he ran into the woods.

And Johnny stood there going, he said, that point broke my heart.

I give up.

I give up.

If he won't take a pork chop, the best in the world, he said, I felt like going out and dusting it off and eating it.

That's how good these pork chops are.

And he said, and he he gave up.

And the tragic part is that Puggy was gone.

He didn't eat the foot food on the edge of the forest.

And he was gone.

He said it was a week and two weeks and three weeks, and finally, one day, the food was gone.

And he thought it was probably raccoons or something, but they filled it up again and it was gone again.

And they actually caught sight of Puggy after about a month.

But he said he'd given up.

This is as close as we're gonna get.

This is the best we're gonna do.

And then Grayson came into town.

Have you seen Puggy?

No, we haven't seen him.

He was gone for a while, but this then Thanksgiving last year.

Thanksgiving last year.

Johnny had gone to run some errands, and Grayson was there looking for Puggy.

He looked out the back door, and as he looked out the back door, he says, Grandma, I think I saw Puggy.

And he ran out in the back.

In the back behind their car, about, I don't know, 40 yards back, there's a car that Johnny's grandfather had given him.

It sat there for about 30 years.

It's never been moved.

They mow around it.

There's thorns and bushes and it just sits there.

And Grayson said, I think I saw him run under the car, and he went out there, and the grandmother said he would be out there for hours.

And she said if he'd not told her she wouldn't have seen him because he ran, and he got as he got closer, he could hear under the car.

And he got closer.

And he had to move the weeds and he had to move the thorns.

And he got under the back bumper and he laid down on his stomach.

And he looked and he could see Puggy, and Puggy didn't run.

And he laid there for an hour.

And then two, and he would slowly just look.

And he'd slowly move his hand.

And he just held his hand out.

And over two hours he would just slowly move towards him.

He would move an inch.

And he said, at some point, he would move an inch and Puggy would move an inch.

And over all that time, and he says, I don't know how long, it was hours.

Where he finally got up to where Puggy was right there, and he just pet him.

He didn't grab him, he just pet him.

And Puggy leaned into it a little bit, a little bit more, to where he would come completely to him and he'd let him take him out.

And Grandma called Johnny and she said, Hey, I need to prepare you.

And she he said, What's up?

He said, When you pull up, you're gonna see Grayson in the back, and you're never gonna believe what he has.

And he goes, What does he have?

What happened?

He said, Puggy is sitting in his lap.

And he said, sure enough, he pulls up and he's holding this towel with this little dirty, ugly dog sitting there.

He said, Evening came and it was time for dinner, and he said, I'm not hungry, I just want to be with Puggy.

And they brought the food out to him and he shared his Thanksgiving dinner with Puggy and he wouldn't let him go.

And he sat there and held him until late that night and they said, Buddy Grayson, you gotta go to bed.

He's gonna be fine.

He's been out here for years.

He's gonna be fine.

He said, But I don't want to leave him.

So they made a pallet for him and they made some blankets and they put a space heater out there.

And Grayson reluctantly went to bed.

He popped out of bed the next morning and he ran to the back door.

And there was Puggy sitting there.

And every day since then, they brought him in.

They gave him a bath.

Still has his little crooked foot.

They took him to the vet, and the vet said, Yeah, he was traumatized and he broke his foot, but it would be more painful to fix it.

Can he walk?

And they're like, Yeah, and they said it'd be better just leave it is.

So he just walks around.

And they said, every day now, Puggies at the door.

And they just open the door and he walks in and follows them around and he just lets them do whatever they do.

If they sit down, he sits down and he just walks around and he won't go back outside until grandma gives him a hug.

And she'll pick him up, and then sometimes he follows her, sometimes he just walks outside and do whatever Puggies do.

But as I sat there and I heard him tell that story, I'm just sitting there going, That's Christmas.

That's Christmas.

Jesus looks down to you and I right now and he says, I I know your pain.

I know your hopes.

I know your dreams, and all I want to do is be with you.

And I want to meet that with you.

But you have to let me.

And at this Christmas, I hope we'll just see God's view.

And in case you're not good with stories, um, we're the dog in the story, okay?

And uh, and I love I love the way that God lays it out.

Some 700 years before the first Christmas, it said, God will give you a sign, and the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call him Emmanuel, God with us.

Later in Isaiah, he even describes that he said, and to us a child is born, and the son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.

And it would lay out his life later in Isaiah.

He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, familiar with pain, like one from whom people hid their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took our pain and bore our suffering.

Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities.

And the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we will be healed.

As I hear that story, I think, God thank you.

Seven hundred years before the first Christmas, God had laid the path.

And then the first Christmas.

In those days, Caesar's Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken on the earth and the entire Roman world.

And the this was the first census to be taken while Corinius was governor of Syria.

And everyone went to their own town to register.

Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house of David and the line of David.

And he went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him, and was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came, and the baby was born.

She gave birth to her firstborn, a son.

And she wrapped him in cloth and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

And 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 to them, Do not be afraid.

I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people.

Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you, and he is the Messiah of the Lord.

This will be a sign to you.

You will find a baby wrapped in clothes, laying in a manger.

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

When the angel had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us 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 a manger.

When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what they had been told about the child, and all who heard were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

And the shepherds returned, glorifying God, praising him for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

He is still Emmanuel.

Merry Christmas.