On Christmas Eve, Pastor Jeff emphasizes the significance of the unique birth of Jesus Christ and its implications for humanity. He recounts how Jesus was born of a virgin, fulfilling ancient prophecies, and underscores the unique ministry and mission of Jesus, which was to save humanity from sin. Pastor Jeff invites attendees to consider their personal relationship with Jesus and the need for a transformative response to his message. Ultimately, he encourages everyone to receive the gift of Jesus, emphasizing that true faith results in a life-changing experience.
Sermon Transcript
Well, good afternoon. Would you help me welcome all of our brave campuses who are worshiping with us today? So great to have all of you.
Merry Christmas to y'all. I know that we have many people who visit on Christmas Eve, and I want you just to feel comfortable and to just be yourself. Because I think sometimes when you walk into a church, there's a. An expectation. You gotta be a certain way or put on airs.
But I can tell you, even if you've been in church a while, you realize you're still gonna make mistakes, still gonna be pretty normal. As a matter of fact, right before this 2:00 service, I just got wind of this right before I came on the platform. Apparently we were. There was an older lady that wanted to be seated up close to the front, and she kept insisting, oh, I wanna sit in the front row. And the usher told her, he said, no, you don't wanna sit in the front row.
You don't know our pastor. I know our pastor. He's pretty intense. He gets fiery. If you sit close, you.
You may even get spit upon or something. It's better sit in the back. Sit up in the back. But she kept insisting she wanted to sit in the front row. And finally she said, do you know who I am?
And they said, no. She's like, I'm Pastor Jeff's mom.
So shamed. He kind of walked her up front. She's right here. And. Yeah.
And then he asked the question. He's like, do you know who I am? And she said, no. And he goes, thank God. And he ran away.
So just be yourself. We're gonna have fun. If you've never been in church church before. I'm going to pray. Every time that we read God's word, God is speaking.
You can hear God speak to you tonight. That's the goal. And we want you to be able to respond any way that the Lord would have you respond. No matter who you are. God wants to talk to you.
So I'm going to pray, then we're going to talk through the scripture, and then I'm going to give you four truths about this scripture. And then we'll. We'll close. So hopefully this would be an enjoyable Christmas Eve service for you. Would you pray with me?
Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are. And Lord, we ask in these moments that we have together, that you would move ever so mightily that you would speak to every single person here because your desire is to meet them right where they're at and Lord, we as a people here at BRAVE believe that every time that your word is proclaimed faithfully and accurately, that you are speaking. So our prayer this afternoon is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now, for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you, and who will by faith, put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this afternoon by saying the word Amen? Amen.
Have you ever been anticipating something so much that the excitement just bubbles over? Perhaps you feel that way about Christmas. I know when I was a little kid, Christmas was that time of the year where I just couldn't wait. As a matter of fact, I remember back in the day, long before Internet, long before apps, long before all those things we had, like the Sears catalog, some of you remember those things, you know, make Christmas lists out on notebook paper and kind of stuff it in. And then you kind of anticipate, are any of these things going to arrive?
And you get really excited. As you get older, there's different things that you anticipate. Maybe you anticipate graduation from school, or maybe you anticipate your wedding day, or maybe you anticipate the birth of a child, or maybe as you're even older, you anticipate many of those things for your own children and you look forward to them. But there's something about anticipation where you can't control your emotions. Something on the inside is grabbing at you and saying, I can't wait for this to happen.
I can't wait for this to happen. I can't wait for this to happen. When it comes to the birth of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ coming into the world, the world had been waiting with great anticipation for that to happen. The son, Jesus Christ had been promised to the world for a long, long time. And the nation of Israel was waiting for the Messiah to come.
Because much like today, back then there were things going on in the world that weren't making sense. And people were saying, if only God could be with us, if only God could be here, if only God could be among us, he could see settle some of these things because there's so many problems and many of us feel the same way. And what the scripture reveals is that nearly 2,000 years ago, God sent his son to be the savior of the world. And it's such a unique story and it's so magnificent that sometimes we miss it in the commercialization of Christmas. Sometimes we even miss it in our religious traditions.
Because we talk about it so much. We talk about the birth of Jesus, and he came to the world and he's God's son. But we really don't know the significance of what that means. And I want to let you know what the significance of the anticipation of Jesus Christ coming means. And what it means is that God is with us.
If you have a Bible tonight, you can open it up. If you don't, I'll just read these verses to you, and then we'll unpack them together. They come from Matthew's gospel, chapter one, verses 18 to 25. And I'm going to read these eight verses to you, and then we'll take a look at four truths that come right from them. It says this.
Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they became together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you should call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son. And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son and he called his name Jesus. And there in those eight verses, we get a true picture of what happened during this Christmas season that we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And I want to highlight four truths from this text to you today that you can take with you for the rest of your life that were true then that are true now, that will have significance in your life if you believe them. And the first is this. That the unique birth delivered a unique child. That this unique birth delivered a unique child. There is no birth like this birth notice this.
It says, now this is how the birth happened. It happened just as follows. When Mary, his mother, had been betrothed to Joseph before they came to be together, she was found to be with child conceived by the Holy Spirit. So what happens? Joseph and Mary are betrothed.
They're engaged. They're going to get married. During their engagement period, Mary gets pregnant. The Bible makes clear they had never come together and had a union as a husband and wife. They never had a union outside of marriage.
They've never been together. Joseph knows they've never been together. And so Mary's now pregnant. And here's Mary's story to Joseph. Yes, I'm pregnant.
I've never been with a man. That's her story. And Joseph, he's a good man, he's a righteous man. He's gonna send her away secretly. He doesn't wanna shame her.
There's no way Joseph believes that. Nobody would believe that story. I wouldn't believe that story. You wouldn't believe that story. So what has to happen is an angel of the Lord has to appear to Joseph in a dream saying what Mary told you is true.
And the child inside of her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. And you should call his name, Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. The child inside Mary is the promised child, is going to be God in flesh and all. Throughout the scriptures we see this is a unique birth unlike any other. Now, why did Jesus have to be born of a virgin?
The Bible makes that clear. Because back in the beginning, when God created the world, he created two genders, male and female. He told them to be fruitful and multiply. He created everything in the world. Everything is perfect in the world.
Everything's great in the world. And every time God created something, he said, it is good. When he created humankind, male and female, in his image, he said, it is very good. It was the crown of his creation because we're created in the image of God as human beings. That's why every human being, you and me, we all have value to God because we're all created in the image of God.
So God loves every human being, every human life. The problem is this. We don't make it very far in the Bible until we see God set up and say, you can do whatever you want. Just. Just enjoy your life.
But here's what I don't want you to. Don't. Don't eat off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day you eat off that tree, surely you will die. And they don't make it very far because they're just like us.
They thought they could be like God. They thought they could have wisdom like God. They're like, why can we do everything except this? You can do whatever you want, except don't look behind the curtain you can do whatever you want. Just don't do this.
Don't touch the stove. Why burn? Right? We have this in our DNA that we want to know. And as soon as Adam and Eve ate the fruit together, they died spiritually, they died and it set in course the motion for death.
God never intended people to die. God intended us to live forever. But God loved us enough to give us the choice to be obedient to him. We chose not to. And then the G rated version of conception, from then on, sinner A and sinner B, Adam plus Eve, you get a sinling, right?
And then that produces and reproduces. And that's why your children are born with a sinful nature. That's why you never have to teach your children how to be selfish. You never have to teach them how to talk back. You never have to teach them how to break their curfew.
You never have to teach them how to do anything wrong. They're really, really good at it. You have to teach him how to share. You have to teach him how to be selfless. You have to teach them how to be kind.
Why? Because there's a sin nature going on. So here's the problem. If God would have come to the universe as a man born of a man and a woman, he would have been born in what sin? Iniquity.
If he's born in sin, he can't fulfill the ministry that God has for him. So that's why the Bible goes to great lengths to tell you in John 1:1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was with God from the beginning. So here's what you need to know.
Jesus Christ that came to the world 2,000 years ago, there's never been a time that he did not exist. He's always existed as the second person of the Trinity. But 2,000 years ago, he put on flesh. Because the Bible Sundays in John 1:14, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. What's that mean?
God became a man. God became a man. Now he didn't become a man just for the 33 years that he lived on the earth, he became a man for all eternity. He died as the God man. He rose as the God man.
He ascended into heaven as the God man. And guess what? He's coming back as the God man. That's who he is. That's why his birth is so different.
It wasn't just that he was the firstborn in the family of Mary and Joseph. We all know the firstborn is probably the most significant. I'm the firstborn. I know that it's because he's God in flesh being born. And it said that Joseph kept her a virgin until Jesus was born.
If we read on in the Gospels, in Matthew, you'll see Jesus had at least four brothers and two sisters. Mary was not a perpetual virgin. Mary and Joseph had other children. Two of them, James and Jude, wrote in the New Testament. So Mary is not the hero of the story.
Joseph's not the hero of the story. They're both righteous young people. But the hero of the story is the God man, Jesus, who wanted to identify with the world so much that he became a man. Now, why would God do that? He didn't need to do that, but he wanted to do that because by coming as a man and identifying as a human, he was tempted in every way.
We are yet without sin. And so when we hear about the story of Jesus, he's unlike anyone that's ever come into the world. There's no one like him. There will never be anyone else like him, because he's God. We read in Colossians, chapter one that in him everything created was by him.
And for him, things visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities, all things were created by him. And for Him. We find out he's so humble that he humbled himself even to the point of death. Death on a cross. Therefore, God highly exalted him.
And at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. One day you will. Why? Because this unique birth brought a unique child. There's no one that's ever been like Jesus.
Even when he was 12 years old and his parents found him in the temple and they're like, what are you doing here? He said, did you not know I needed to be in my father's house. He was teaching the priests of his day what God was like. Why? Because he himself is God.
He says, if you've seen me, you've seen my father. If you want to know what God is like. I've always wanted to know what God's like. I always want to know what God thinks about this or how he'd respond to that. Read through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and study the person of Jesus.
And that's exactly how God responds. Amen. And so what we need to understand is when we see Jesus, we're not just talking about a human being who was kind and gentle and came. We're talking about God came to the world and this was such a significant event that when he was born, the heavens burst open and all the angels began to give praise to God. You're familiar with this story In Luke chapter two, starting in verse nine, it says, and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them.
This is the shepherds in the field. And the glory of the Lord shone round about them. And they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be for all the people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you. You'll find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among men with whom he is pleased. When Jesus Christ was born, God dispensed an angel to tell the shepherds, jesus is born. He came to the most lowly of the people in the society and told the shepherds.
And when the shepherds heard the message, all the angels, myriads of angels, millions of angels are all praising God that the Savior has come to world. Now why did the Savior need to come to the world? Here's why. Because humanity can't get to God. Only God can bring humanity to himself.
And that's the second point that the scripture wants to highlight tonight. Not only is this unique child fulfilling a unique, unique birth, delivering a unique child, but this unique child fulfilled a unique ministry. Notice verse 21, it says, she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. What's the purpose of Jesus coming? It's not just to be an example.
It's not just to be kind. It's not just to be wonderful. It's not just to be God among us. He came for a mission. To do what?
To save people from their sins. You'll notice in Jesus life that there were some differences about how he lived and what he did. We see it in Mark, chapter 4. After Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, he was tempted by the devil. And the devil came to him three different times.
And he said, you know, if you're really the son of God, why don't you turn these stones to bread? Well, after 40 days being in the wilderness, because he's fully God and fully man. He's hungry. But what does Jesus say? He doesn't just turn the stones to bread.
He says, man does not live by bread alone, but from every word that comes out of the mouth of God again, he took him to a high place in the temple. He said, why don't you just throw yourself off? Because if God's so good, he'll save you. He says it also says, don't put the Lord your God to a test. Then Satan took him and showed him all the kingdoms of the world.
He goes, all these I'll give you if you just bow down and worship me. Which is interesting, because Jesus is the king of all the nations of the world and owns all of them. And yet Satan's tempting him with that. And what does he say? Depart from me, Satan.
The scripture also says, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Now, this is the first time in human history where somebody has defeated the temptation of the devil. All the way back in the garden, Adam and Eve get tempted. You can be like God. You'll know things like God.
He will never punish you for what you do wrong. So they ate the fruit. And ever since then, the enemy's been lying to each one of us. You don't need to do this. You can cheat, you can get away with it.
You can steal, you can lie, you can be immoral. You can do this. You can do it. It's not a big deal. And every single one of us has a track record of how we've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God until you get to Jesus.
And he gets tempted in every way. We are and yet stands firm. Why? Because he's the God man. He's God in flesh.
He's different. He's distinct. He's unique. He's not like us. And then you see his ministry.
He responds to things differently than what people did. You remember the story in Mark, chapter two, where there were four men that said, if we can just get our paralyzed friend to Jesus, he'll do something. So they bring him to Jesus, but he's preaching, and it's so busy that they can't get to him. So they climb up on the roof, cut a hole in the roof, lower this mat with his paralyzed man down to Jesus with four different ropes. And when Jesus looks up and sees the faith of the four that believe that he can do something, what does he say to the paralyzed man?
Your sins are forgiven. And the religious elite of the day are like forgiving sins. Only God can forgive sins. What's he doing? He's a blasphemer.
He's saying he's God and Jesus knowing their wicked hearts. What's he say? Oh, just so you know that I have the ability to forgive sins. Just so you know that I'm God, I can do all things. He tells the man, pick up your mat, stand up and go home.
And the man picks up his. He's been paralyzed from birth. Picks up his mat and walks away. He's like, I can heal. I have authority over disease.
I can cast out demons. I have authority over them. I even have authority over death. Because we see in Luke, chapter 11, when Jesus, really good friend Lazarus, who's been in the grave for four days when he arrives, and his sisters Mary and Martha come out to greet him and say, lord, if you'd been here, our brother would still be alive. We know how powerful you are.
And he said, stop doubting and just believe. And he goes to the tomb and has him roll back the stone, even though he's been dead for four days and says three words, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus, wrapped up in all of his grave clothes, comes out and walks. Why? Because Jesus has power over death.
His ministry is so unique, people didn't know how to handle him. When he was talking to the religious elite of the day, they always walked away sad, even though he loved them, because they believed that they could get to God just by being good people, just by doing the right things and just by keeping all the commandments, even though they didn't keep them. And every time Jesus would expose their hypocrisy, they got upset. And yet when he met people who he knew were broken, whose families were being ripped apart, who were blind, who were desperate, who knew they had no hope in this world, People just like me and you, they're like, where are the answers? And why is this world so hard?
And how come we can't all seem to get along and we can't figure it out? And I need to find the answer. Think about the woman that was drawing water in the middle of the day, the woman at the well, and she's drawing water, And Jesus said, give me a drink. She said, how can you ask me for a drink? I'm a Samaritan, you're a Jew.
We don't. We don't get along. Jesus said, well, if you knew who I was, you would ask me for a drink and I would have given you living water and you'd never thirst again. She said, well, tell me what you mean. He's like, I'll tell you what I mean.
Why don't you go call your husband. She said, I don't have a husband. He's like, you're right when you say you don't have a husband. Fact is, you've had five husbands, and the man you're living with is not your husband. You've spoken the truth.
She's like, I can tell you're a prophet. You know everything about me. She's like, one day I know when. When the Lord comes, he's going to tell us to worship. Because you Jews worship on this mountain, and we Samaritans worship on this mountain.
And one day we'll know all the ways to worship so we'll know how to get to heaven. And he's like, here's what the Lord's looking for. The Lord's looking. The Father's looking for ones who worship him in spirit and truth. And I, the one whom standing before you, I am He.
She gives her life to him. She gets so excited, she goes and calls all of her friends in Samaria, and they all come out. And Jesus begins to lead all of them to the Lord, too. Who's he for? He's for the desperate.
The ones who have lived in shame. The ones who can't figure out where to go. The ones who can't do anything. Who's he not for? He loves everybody.
But the people that he ends up rejecting are the people who say, I don't need you. I got this. I've already figured it out. I'm righteous enough. I'm good enough.
I don't need you. I don't need anything you can do. And people like that always walked away sad from him. And it didn't matter who they were. We studied recently two different rich people.
One who thought, I'm good enough without you, and one who thought, lord, I need you more than anything. And here and now I give half of my possessions away to the poor. I'd rather have you than any earthly possession in the world. We see Jesus do amazing things, like feeding 5,000. We see him walk on the water.
We see him calm a storm. He's got power and authority over everything, and yet he's constantly showing love to those who need him. He's asking this question, who do you say I am? And his disciples at one point said, well, some say you're John the Baptist. Some say you're prophet.
He's like, yeah, but who do you say that I am? Which is the most important question you'll ever ask on this side of heaven. Who do you say Jesus is? Well, Peter Said you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said, you've answered correctly.
That's the only correct answer. Did you know that Jesus is not a good teacher? He was a good teacher, but that's not enough. Because he was born of a virgin and he's always existed. He's God.
So he either is who he says he is as God, or he's a terrible teacher. He's a liar, or he's flat out deranged lunatic. You get your choice. You can't just say, oh, he was a good man. If I told you that I'm God and I told you that I've always existed and I told you that I'm the only way to the Father, you would have to make your conclusions.
But you wouldn't make the conclusion he's a pretty good guy. You would say he's nuts, right? But that's exactly what Jesus claimed. His ministry was unique. And that's why he came to this world.
Why? Because he came to do what no one else can do. This unique child fulfilled a unique ministry. Why? Because God is different than we view God.
We view God just like us. Why don't you just accept me for who I am? Why don't you just love me for who I am? Here's the problem. God's holy.
That means he's perfect. He's righteous. He's nothing like us. Which means any attempt on our behalf to get ourselves to God will never work. You can go to church for the rest of your life.
You can pick whatever denomination you want. It won't work. You can read whatever holy book you want. It won't work. At the end of the day, you can't get to God.
Why? Because you're dead in your sins. And God is perfect and God is holy and he's righteous. And he can't have sin in his presence. So what did he do?
Jesus came to say, I'll take care of all that for you. Because I'm fully God and fully man. I'll fulfill the law. I'll be tempted in every way you are. Yet I'll be without sin.
And then what I'll do is I'll take the punishment that you deserve for all your sin. On myself. When the Bible says He will save the people from their sins. Make no mistake. Jesus came for one reason and one reason only.
To die on that cross. 3333 years later so that he could pay for the sin of the world. How serious is God about sin? Take a look at how God Treated his own only son. He was whipped.
He was beaten. He was spit upon. He was mocked. They put a crown of thorns on his head. They took him to Golgotha.
They drove nails into his hands and into his feet. For six hours he sat there and suffered while God was pouring out his wrath on him. Why? Not because of anything Jesus had done, but because of your sin and because of my sin. And Jesus Christ.
His last words on this earth were, what is finished? Into your hands I commit my spirit. And he died. And when he did, he paid the penalty for all the sin of the world. Three days later, he rose from the dead.
He's the only one that's risen from the dead that's still alive. Jesus Christ raised Lazarus. Lazarus still died. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. He's still alive as he's ever been.
He'll always be alive because he's the God man. And then he began to offer life to anyone who would want his life in them. That's the beauty of the Christ child coming. It's not just a story that we can remember and think about, oh, God did that. It's that Jesus Christ is still alive as the God man and wants to have relationship with you.
I mean, think about this. This unique child fulfilled a unique ministry. This unique birth delivered this unique child. Let me give you a third one. This unique ministry communicated a unique message.
Notice this in verses 22 and 23. Now, all this took place to fulfill what was spoken of by the Lord through the prophet and the prophets. Isaiah. This is 750 years before Jesus was born. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and will bear a son.
And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. So 750 years before the birth of the child, God said, this child's coming. That's just one of over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament. They prophesied he'd be born in Bethlehem. They prophesied he'd be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.
Everything the Old Testament prophesied, Jesus Christ fulfilled perfectly right. And so he's the God man. And here's the message he was saying all throughout the New Testament. It spells out this, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. While America would say, you're a good person, you're great, you're awesome.
The Bible says there is no one good. No, not one. Why? Because the Bible is comparing you to God, not to the person sitting next to you. Like you can look in your family and give yourself really good marks most of the time, can't you?
You start comparing yourself to the eternal holy God of the universe and you don't come up. And when, when you don't measure up, then we begin forming our own religions in our head. Well, if I just go to confession enough, if I just go to church enough, if I just join a small group, if I just give enough money, if I'm just nice enough to my neighbors, none of that will work. Because you can't become perfect when you're not perfect. It's only the God, man that's able to redeem everything in you.
So Jesus Christ went to the cross, and his reason for dying and shedding his blood was so that you would not die in your sins. Because here's the truth. If you die in your sin without repenting and turning to Christ, you will spend a crisis eternity in hell. You say, well, how can that be? How could a loving God send people to hell?
That's the wrong question. How could a holy God ever accept anybody into heaven? And the Bible answers that question. The Bible says, through Jesus Christ's death on the cross, I can take anybody who's a sinner and I can declare them holy in my sight. And that's the unique message Jesus was trying to say.
That's why he. He didn't mince words. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the only way to heaven.
Jesus is the only way to have a relationship with God. And the only way to have a relationship with God is through the true person of Jesus Christ who died for you and rose and shed his blood so that your sin could be completely washed. 2nd Corinthians 5:21 says, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Galatians 2:20 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
The life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And the next verse says this. If righteousness could be gained through observation of the law, then Christ died for nothing. If there's things that you could do to make yourself good enough to present yourself to God, then Jesus Christ died for nothing. You would have to say, what a waste of a life that was, what a waste of a ministry that was.
He did nothing for me. And that's what we always do when we don't respond to Jesus Christ by faith. Now, here's the thing. You know what? Sometimes when you talk about things, we have this tradition in our culture about a man in a red suit that's kind of jolly, that sees you when you're sleeping, and he knows when you're awake, and he knows when you've been bad or good.
So be good for goodness sake, right? And he's like, well, that's just kind of weird. We don't really believe that. And I didn't until Thanksgiving. I was up in the mountains with my family, and we were walking around, and all of a sudden I saw Santa and Mrs.
Claus in Beaver Creek. I said to my wife, we should get a picture with them. And I'm like, yeah. I said, hey, can we get a picture with you? And Mrs.
Claus goes, Pastor Jeff, I never see you anymore. You don't call, you don't write. And everything in my heart's like, who in the world? Apparently, Mrs. Claus used to spend a lot of time in Denver, a brave church, before moving, right?
And we laugh. But here's the truth. God sees everything. He knows everything about you. He knows every single thing about you.
All those shameful things that not even your spouse knows or not even your best friend knows, knows them all. And when Jesus Christ came, here's what you need to understand. He came so not to hold those over your head. He came to release his forgiveness for everything, that you could be totally forgiven. But it's not enough just to be like, oh, good, I don't have to worry about that anymore.
It's about, you need to exchange your sin for his forgiveness and your deadness for his life. There's gotta be an exchange that takes place because this child is unique, and this ministry was fulfilled by him. And he's communicating a message that you must come to him. And here's the message. Here's the fourth point.
This unique message requires a unique response. It requires repentance. It requires turning from your sin. It requires faith. It requires believing that Jesus is the Christ.
I know in a group this size, I know there's all sorts of things going on. Some of you have family. It's really, really challenging. Some of you try to put on airs and think it's pretty good, but it's not very good. Some of you lack hope.
Some of you wonder if anybody in the world cares. Some of you wonder if anybody has compassion for you. Some of you, because you have learned to cope in this world, you become very inauthentic with who you are. Some of you have identity issues. I mean, there's all sorts of things, and we all come from different backgrounds.
But here's the truth of the Christ child coming. The God man came so that he could wash all of your sins away. And here's the truth. Listen, listen, listen. This is the most important part of the message.
He didn't come just so you could pray, some prayer or do some religious activity and then go back to living your life. He came so that your life could be transformed. When Paul proclaimed in Colossians chapter one, here's what he proclaimed. He proclaimed what he called the mystery that had been hidden from the past ages and all generations, but has now been manifested to the saints to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of his glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Can I just tell you what Christianity is?
Christianity is not about you praying a magic prayer. It's not about you giving your allegiance to something in your mind. It's about a whole transformation of your life. Because in the same way that Jesus Christ left heaven and came to earth and was born in Bethlehem and manifested himself as God's one and only Son from heaven, do you know what he wants to do now? He wants to come manifest himself inside your life.
And Christianity is not about a creed that you believe on the outside. Christianity is about the belief that Christ comes to live on the inside. Jesus wants to live on the inside of your life. He wants to come make his home with you. He doesn't just want you to hear a story about Bethlehem and hear a story about him coming to earth because he loves you.
He came and died on the cross for you because he wants to live. He wants to change your life. So here's the question. The question is not, have you prayed a prayer? The question is not, have you been to church?
The question is not, are you a good person? The question is not, do you want to get better? The question is not, do you need more blessing in your life. Here's the question. The question is, when in your life since you've been born, has Christ come to live on the inside?
When did that transformation take place? That's the question. You say, well, how do I know that there's a transformation? Here's how you know. And I've used this illustration many, many times.
If you were out on i25 today and you got a flat tire and you were fixing the tire and a lug nut rolled out into the. Into I25 and without thinking you kind of reached out to get it. And when you did, a semi came by at 75 miles an hour and smacked you. It would transform everything about your life. It would be completely life altering.
Here's the question. What is more powerful, a semi traveling at 75 miles an hour or the God of the universe? And if the God of the universe really comes to make his home in you, how can you say, I don't know if he's really there? See, it's not about, did I pray the right prayer, Did I get the right religion, Did I go to the right church? Did I do the right thing?
Here's the question, Jesus, I know I need you. And I know I've never brought you into my life. And today I want to surrender my life. Because here's who Jesus always went after, the desperate. I can't take any.
I need my sins forgiven. I don't want to die in my sins, Lord, I need your help in my family. Lord, I need your help with my Lord. I need you. Because if I have you, then I have everything I need.
So my question is, when did Jesus come to make his home inside of you? That's what it means to be born again. That's why Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. That's why nobody comes to the Father except through me. That doesn't mean regardless of what nation you were born in, regardless of your skin color, ethnicity, background or gender, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life for all people at all times.
Amen.
And it's really interesting, as I wrap up here, I just want to tell you it's interesting because, you know, it's easy to come to a church service on Christmas Eve and then start thinking about, yeah, we're going out to dinner with family tomorrow. We open presents and we do all this stuff. Here's the greatest gift that's ever been given to humanity, Jesus Christ's very life that he laid down on a cross and died so that you who were dead spiritually, even though you're alive physically, could experience a spiritual rebirth, that you could be made new not by becoming religious and not by joining a church, but by saying, today I want Jesus Christ to come into my life and be the Lord of my life. I want his blood to wash everything out of me. I want all of him in me.
And for those of you who would say, I don't know that, I'm kind of ready for that, I don't know that I'm ready to change, here's the truth. If Jesus comes in, he'll change you automatically. The question is, do you want to stay the way you are, or do you want to receive the greatest gift that's ever been given to mankind? And the greatest gift that's ever been given to mankind is the gift of Jesus Christ that he offers freely to anyone. And do you know what you need to do to receive it?
Take it. Take it. You know, some of you have the tradition of exchanging presents. It becomes yours when you take it. And it's not a present if there's a price tag or invoice attached to it, right?
Here's your gift. And now you owe me $53. It's not a gift, right? A gift is, this is yours. And no matter what you do with it, it's yours.
It belongs to you. But it only becomes yours when you receive it. John 1:12 says, to those who received him, he gave the right to become children of God. And I want to say in this place, I don't want to end without giving you the opportunity to do that in this place. Again, I'm not asking you, are you religious?
I'm not asking you if you're a good person. There's a lot of good people every single day that live apart from God. There's a lot of good people that go to hell on a regular basis because God's not looking for good. He's already told you, there's no one good. No, not one.
What he's looking for are people's hearts that want his life. So the way I wanted to end today is give you an opportunity to do that. Because if you can't do that here in a church, you can't do that anywhere, right? And if you can't stand for Jesus in here, you can't stand for him anywhere. And so in a minute, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to respond to Jesus publicly.
You say, why would you do that? Because everybody Jesus called, he called publicly. He just called him publicly. Like, if you can't stand for Jesus in a church with a bunch of people that will applaud for you, you'll never stand for them out there. And here's what Jesus said.
There is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents than over 99 that don't need to. Friends, when I was 18 years old, I heard this message. It ticked me off so much, I'm like, I'm not doing that. I don't want to do that. But there was something inside of me, and I've seen it in some of your faces tonight.
Like, even when you come in and you start worshiping, there's a sense, like, there's something different here. I'm feeling something in my heart here. Can I tell you what that is? That's the Holy Spirit of God saying, I brought you here because I wanted you to experience Jesus tonight. That's what it is.
And so in just a minute, I'm just gonna. I'm gonna ask anybody here that wants to receive Christ. There's nothing magical about standing to your feet, but it's just a way of publicly demonstrating. I heard the Lord, and that's me tonight, and I want to trust Jesus Christ. I'd like you to stand in just a minute, I'm gonna pray with you.
And when you stand, there'll be several of you that do. We're going to pray over you, and you're going to hear people cheering. But here's what you need to know. Behind the cheers that you hear here, there's myriads of angels in heaven that are rejoicing because you've come to Christ. Amen.
So I'm just going to ask you where you are, whether you're way up in the balcony, whether you're a kid, no matter who you are, if you heard the Lord tonight and you heard his voice, don't harden your heart. Just stand right now and just say, hey, tonight I'm giving my life to Jesus Christ, and I want him to be the Lord of my life. Would you just stand?
Thanks, brother.
Thank you. I'll see you back there.
Thank you.
I can't see in Westminster and Colorado Springs, but for all of you, would you stand up right now as we pray together? And again, there was nothing magical about standing. You say, maybe I should have done that. You can do it right now, right? It's just a way for you to remember.
And those of you that did stand up, I want you to remember this day, December 24, 2024, for the rest of your life. Because when you receive Christ in your life, he will never leave you and he will never, ever forsake you. Amen. Would you pray with me? Our Father in Heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are.
And here in this moment, we're just going to pray a prayer of our heart that we recognize. A couple things, and this is how you can pray. Why don't we just all pray it out loud together? Dear Jesus, just repeat after me. Dear Jesus, I believe that you're Lord.
I believe you came for me. I believe you died on the cross for my sins and I believe you rose from the dead right now. I give you my life.
Here's all my sin. Give me all your forgiveness. I call you my Lord and Savior. Let me pray for you. Father in heaven, we just give you all the praise, glory and honor for who you are.
And Lord, whether people stood, didn't stand, Lord, what you're doing in this place or in Westminster or Colorado Springs or online, we we believe that it's you who's doing the work. And Lord, there's going to be some who leave here tonight. We say I'm still wrestling with that, that later tonight, tomorrow, the next day, you're going to convict them that they need Jesus in their life. Come in Lord and do a work. And Lord, we just give you praise and glory for what happened on that night when you came into the world.
Lord, we just continue to do a work. We give you all the glory, all the honor and all the praise in Jesus name Amen. Amen. Can we give God praise for.