Christmas at Rock Point 2023 | Sermon

The big idea

Christmas isn't about decorating our chaos with lights to distract from it — it's about the Light of the World stepping into our chaos to save us.

Christmas offers real hope: God didn't just shine light on our darkness from a distance, He dove into it by becoming a baby in a manger. We can't earn our way onto God's "nice list" by fixing ourselves up, but Jesus lived the life we couldn't live and died the death we deserved so we could have life we could never earn. The point isn't decorating our lives to look better — it's turning to the presence of Jesus, whatever is in our present.

Point 1 of 5

Pastor Bill opens with funny, real examples of people putting Christmas lights on dump trucks, toilets, and even a rented porta potty, joking that we'll call anything festive once we string lights on it. He turns this into a picture of how we treat our own lives and even our faith — dressing up the darkness instead of addressing it, and finding that when the lights come down, we're right back where we started.

Point 2 of 5

Pastor Bill draws the contrast between Christmas lights, which only cover chaos, and the light of Christmas, which is Jesus Himself entering the chaos to rescue us. He walks through Luke's account of the shepherds and the angels, noting that the dazzling light show wasn't the point — it only pointed toward a baby lying in a manger.

Point 3 of 5

Pastor Bill contrasts the popular idea of God as a Santa-like figure keeping a naughty and nice list with what the Bible actually says — that all have sinned and fall short of God's perfect standard. He challenges listeners to test this by their own broken New Year's resolutions: if we can't even live up to our own standards, how could we live up to God's?

Point 4 of 5

Pastor Bill explains that God stayed true to His own justice and holiness while still making a way for us — Jesus took the penalty for sin so that by faith, simply admitting we're sinners and turning to Him, we can be made right with God. He states plainly that Jesus was born on Christmas but came for Easter, to go to the cross and pay for our sin and darkness.

Point 5 of 5

Pastor Bill tells a personal story of a childhood Christmas photo where he's intently staring at a wrapped present just out of frame, oblivious to his father sitting right beside him — a father who died 20 years ago. He uses this to show how good or bad circumstances (a longed-for gift, a life that feels empty) can distract us from the presence of Jesus that's been there all along, all we have to do is turn our head.

Take it into your week

Pastor Bill's charge is to stop decorating the chaos and turn instead to the presence of Jesus, whatever is in your present.