Christmas at Rock Point 2024 Sermon

I think their class was taught by Elon Musk and JK Rowling is what I think is happening there. But that that that's good. But hey. You know, the

passage that they just read in that video out of out of Luke and what that angel announced, good news, great joy for all people. That's what Christmas is about, isn't it? But you know what? For me, there's part of Christmas that is not good news to me. It doesn't bring great joy, and I'm sad that it is for me. And it's because there's two types of people in the world. Those people that like putting up Christmas lights and me.

And I don't know which category you fall in, but here's the ironic twist. God always makes one of each marry each other. And that's been 32 of my life.

My life loves it. I don't. And as we gotten older, every year, she's getting more and more like Clark Griswold now. It's getting worse. We don't have that big of a yard. She already had started putting up like those plug in blow up things along with lights. And then all of sudden this year, it's like every day, it's we were getting another one of these in the from Amazon. Got like three. And I'm like, I went to her, are these to replace the other ones? She goes, no. I'm like, I don't know where they're gonna go, but they're out there. Matter of fact, she put so much stuff up that I went into our garage where we use it for stuff. We have a refrigerator

out there. I call it the Garagerator, and this we keep drinks and stuff in it. And I opened the door. I'm like, why is the refrigerator not working? And I realized she plugged in 9,000,000 things to one plug outside, and it blew the breaker. So I had to fix that. But but but and you know what? I I don't complain.

I don't have a bad attitude. I do it especially because I only have one job she gives me. I have to climb up on the ladder and put the ones that are up high. And and and and and it is. It's like it's but when you see me do it, it's like looks like one of those pictures of this is why women live longer.

And and it is the dangerous part. If you're young, don't get it. But as get older and you climb up on a ladder, you start thinking about is my life insurance up to date? And anytime it wobbles, you realize this could be the way I die. It could be.

But as I do it, I'm up there watching everybody enjoy it. I'm like, don't get it. I I do it. I go through the motions. I put the smile on my face. But inside, I get there's no joy in this. It's just a task. And I think as we come here today to celebrate the good news, it's great joy for all people.

I think we have two types of people in this room. Those that actually do understand the story of what it means for Jesus to have been born, and you have joy from that. And those of us that are struggling,

you're struggling right now, and maybe you're just going through the motions. This is a time where a lot of people get depressed because you see everybody acting all merry and jolly and happy, and maybe you're not. Maybe your news right now in your life isn't good, and maybe there isn't joy.

And because of that, you hear this for all people, and you go either it's not true or it's not for me. And that could be you. And if that is you, then I think you can relate to the shepherds in this Luke passage that they read in the opening video.

You see, this angel shows up to these shepherds out in the field, and he gives them this message of good news, great joy, all people. The savior has been born today.

And and then a then he they get a musical number. They just it's these random shepherds out, and and and this big choir kicks in. And, you know, so it's this light show with the choir and the message. Kinda like today, what we're doing here. You get the lights. You get the heavenly voices of our choir and our band. And and then you get a message from me. An angel means messenger. It's the same thing. But but what what happened to them? What changed them? Was it the light show? Was it that?

Why was it different for them? And why would they relate to you if you feel like, hey, I feel kind of on the outside of this whole thing?

Well, if you understand who shepherds were in this time, they were kinda outcasts. It is interesting that God sends an angel and a whole choir to announce just these random shepherds out in a field one night to be the first ones to hear that Jesus had been born.

And it's kind of ironic. It's and it's I think that's why the angel desperately said the message for all people because he wanna know, this is for you. And they might not have felt like it, just like you might not.

Because think about it. They they are shepherds. What they do is they're they're they're actually considered outcast. People didn't trust them, had nothing to do with their personalities. It was just by the nature of what they did. They just looked weird to people. They worked at night. They smelled funny

because of working with sheep. So they they were like well, they were like what we noted like like night people. You ever run across night people?

Like it's people in Walmart past eleven. It's called 09:00 at night. You know, night people. They're they're they're just a little bit odd, a little bit weird. You're you're not sure about them. And you know what? And it's like, I never see people like this during the day, night people.

And maybe you feel like a night person right now. Like, I don't fit in with everybody else. It doesn't seem to be working. But it is for all people. And you know what's crazy, though, is it wasn't the angel's message that changed them. It wasn't it wasn't the the lights. It wasn't the the song. And you know what?

That first Christmas, even if you read the whole story, it wasn't even that their circumstances changed. I mean, they were out in the cold, in the dark. It's lonely. You feel like that outcast. It's a kind of a thankless job. This angel comes, they get the bright lights, they get all that, and then

the angel in the car leaves, gone. And guess what? They're right back in the same spot. They're just sitting in the darkness. But you know what changed? Is they had this moment where they look at each other and they say, let's go check out what this angel said. And so it says they go into Bethlehem, and they meet Jesus.

And it says they see a baby in swaddling clothes, snuggly strips of cloth, lying in a manger. And it's after that, it just says they went back to the fields, telling everybody, excited, singing praise to God, filled with joy. Wow.

Where did they go back to?

They went right back to the place they were, right back to their field, right back to the same situation, right back to the same scenario they were in before it all happened. Only now, they're singing, and they're praising, and they're filled with joy. And the only thing that was different was they met Jesus. That's it.

They met Jesus. That's what changed them. It wasn't their circumstances. It wasn't any of that. So what is it about meeting Jesus? What did it change? Because you know what it made them realize? If you wanna find the joy in Christmas

in in your whole life, the story of Christmas is meant for all year round. If if if you're not finding that, it's it's because we need to realize this one thing that they realized. The joy in Christmas is found when we realize that Christmas is for us, but it's not about us.

It's for us, but it's not about us. What do I mean by that? I mean, when we make Christmas about us and it's actually good, we're in a world of hurt if it's about us, but not for us.

Because what what I mean by that, when we make it about us, when you say, hey. I don't have the joy. I don't think this is for me or it's not real is why do you not have joy? Because what's really happening is you're thinking about your news. What's going on in your life? And if your news isn't good, you're not happy.

And since you're not happy because your news isn't good, why would I believe in good news and joy for me? It can't be for me because I'm not neither my news is bad and it's unhappy. That's what it means to make it about you. Because here's the deal. It's about Jesus and what he did for us.

So when we make it about us, we just make about where am I at? The circumstances of my life. What's going on? Well, guess what? Your circumstances controls your happiness. Happiness is always controlled by circumstances. If your circumstances aren't good, you're not happy.

You can fake it. You can act nice, but you're just not happy. There's no way. The joy that it's talking about here, the Bible talks about this thing, joy. And this idea of joy is a sense of contentment and peace and hope that transcends your circumstances. So it means you can have that despite

whatever you're going through right now. See, if you pursue happiness as your goal, you're gonna have a really up and down time. And you're gonna miss the joy that Jesus brought. You're gonna miss what he brought for us because you're making it about you.

And we end up missing it all the time. A lot of us in here, you're gonna miss it because life is happy right now. So you I don't need God. I don't need Jesus. Everything's good because it's all based on what your news is. But here's the deal. The good news is because what Jesus did helps us with the real bad news.

The bad news isn't that we have bad moments or good moments in our circumstances. The bad news is we're all on the naughty list, and you can't get yourself off of it. Because that comes to point of how did these shepherds meet a baby and have it change them? Why did them seeing a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes,

sitting in a manger, send them back changed and transformed? Well, here's why. Because they were Jews. They were in Israel, and they knew the story because these particular shepherds were watching a particular group of sheep. I've been there. Where these shepherds were,

they watched over the sheep that were used as the sacrificial lambs in the temple. You're like, what does that mean? If you don't know church, well, quick biblical history. Adam and Eve,

God creates them. He says, hey, enjoy this, all this, do this, just don't touch this. They immediately fall for a lie, and they grab the fruit they're not supposed to touch. Why? The lie was, guess what? God's holding out on you. If you really wanna be happy, you need to grab that. And they believed it, and that's called sin.

That's really what sin is. When we make stuff about us, we worry about our happiness instead of what God wants for us, and he created us in his image. So we do all kinds of things that could be said. Even trying to serve God, thinking that I'm coming to church because then God will love me, that's not the right reason. You can't earn it. So you're just trying to do this stuff. It's about your happiness. It's about that. So when that happened, we are now separated from God forever. This is the bad news. You will never understand the good news if you can't accept the bad news. And the bad news is we are now separated from a holy God because he is holy, he's righteous, he's pure, he is also just,

and yes, he's loving and graceful and mercy. But he is going to judge sin because he is holiness. So you cannot be in his presence. You can't have a relationship with God because of your sin.

And you can't take care of it yourself. You can't be good enough. You can't be right enough. And I know that's where a lot of us stop short. Like, I'm not a sinner. I do some bad things, but I'm not Hitler. Isn't it interesting how we always rate ourselves on a curve? And we put ourselves as, well, I'm no saint, but I'm also not this. And where we put ourselves on the list in our own minds is, I'm probably the beginning of being pretty decent. And if you're a little bit more cocky, think you're pretty good. But you typically think people worse than you are bad, people better than you are goody two shoes and probably two faced and lying about something.

That's how we think.

So when you come to church and a pastor goes, you realize you're a sinner. Why are you giving me this? It's Christmas. Why are you being so mean? No. We you'll never understand the good news to have the joy if you don't understand the bad news. And the bad news is every one of us is a sinner. The bible says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That means we do not live up to a standard. If you wanna earn God's grace, if you wanna earn God's love, if you wanna be right with him, you would have to be perfect.

And looking out at this crowd, I'm the closest one to perfect in this room right now because I'm the most humble too and the most sarcastic. No. You you you can't do it. And then some of you are still like, I don't know about this sin thing. I'm like, well, that's exactly the tactic we would take to run

because I think we deep down know we're sinners. We know we can't earn it. So we either gotta reject it or act like we aren't. I can prove to you, don't even to be a Bible thumper, that you know you're a sinner that cannot stand before a righteous God. All I have to ask you is this. How many times have you let yourself down

to your own goal and your own standard?

Every single one of us has. You and I cannot even meet our own standard for ourselves. So why does it surprise you to hear God say, for all have sinned and fall short of me?

And he will judge sin. A righteous holy God can't just sit there and say, that's okay. Don't worry about it. That's not just. That's why we get mad. Why does God let bad people get away with good things? Well, every one of us is bad in many ways, and he lets us get good things. But you don't have to worry.

Every one of us will stand before God and answer for our sin unless you meet Jesus. And that's why these particular

shepherds understood what was going on. Why did seeing a baby change them? They had been their whole life was this symbolic thing because God had called out a guy named Abraham, set up the system, gave him the old testament, wrote, here's who I am, gave him the laws of here's how you need to live. This is what I built you for. This is how you live in my image. And he goes, but you're not gonna be able to do it. So here's a way that you can just symbolically be made right to show them what needs to happen. They created the temple and the sacrifices. You need to take an unblemished lamb. Meaning unblemished. It represents purity and holiness. It hasn't done anything.

And its blood can be shed to protect you. Just like an innocent person paying a fine for you if you're guilty. You can't pay for your you have to pay for your own sin, but someone else could pay for it.

And so it was symbolically to show that we can't meet up, that we need the savior, but the lamb doesn't really do it. It was a holding thing for people to see symbolically that God had already promised He was gonna come and save us Himself. He's the only one that could. He's perfectly and righteous. So the good news is that God Himself became a human, dove into our darkness,

into our brokenness, that even though we make it about us, He still came for us.

That's the good news. That's how you're made right with God, and they understood it. They were the first ones. The reason it changed them so much is they raised these lambs that they knew would go to be sacrificial lambs. So when they went and saw a baby, and it goes out of its way to say in snuggly cloths, sitting in a manger. You know why the Bible tells us that and why they realized what they were looking at? Is that's exactly what the priest would do before they would have the lamb sacrificed.

They would swaddle it like a baby and set it in a manger.

So the reason God told these shepherds is they had been, you know, working out of the dark, feeling left out, but yet he knew they would understand what's going on. And the second they saw that baby, they didn't see a baby. They saw God himself becoming a sacrificial lamb. They saw a sacrificial lamb, and

that's what changed everything. Right then and there, everything changed for them, Yet nothing changed for them. The way we want change, because it says they went right back to the darkness, right back to the cold, right back to the being considered weird, right back to smelling funny, right back to all of that,

yet they had joy. Wouldn't you rather have joy than running after happiness and worried about every time you have it, when's it gonna go away, and being controlled by it and making decisions

that cause more pain because in the moment, you're trying to avoid the pain now and get something good. So you make a bad decision that makes you feel good in the moment, and then it causes more pain later on. We need the good news, which is Jesus came for us because we make it about us. And that's where we get the joy.

And I realized my wife, I thought, well, she just has joy in doing lights, and I discovered I had it wrong.

Because I've watched her when she went out after we put the lights up, and this tree she kinda put lights on, it's like the bottom part of the tree. The lights went out, and I saw her get mad. And I'm starting to think, maybe she's a hypocrite. She isn't happy.

And then she got a plan. She grabbed a load. She had she didn't try to harden. She goes, think I could just wrap this little piece around that'll be okay. I'm like, why don't you just pull it all the way down and be done? Well, then it won't go as high as it should. I go, who cares? She goes, I do. I'm like, have fun. And she goes out there, and she starts doing it. I walked out in the garage to get a drink out of the Garagerator.

And I've looked, and I see her out there. And so I start watching her through the window. She doesn't know I'm watching her. So, yeah, I I'm creeping on my wife.

I can do that. She's my wife. I love her. I like it. I started out just wanting to look at my wife. Then I got pulled into, what is she doing? And I watched her. No one else is around. She doesn't know I'm there. And I watch her. And as she does her simple fix, it doesn't work. And I see her get mad. And my god.

Hypocrite. She's just like me. And then I see her do something crazy. Instead of just getting mad and quitting, she unwraps the whole tree and starts all over and finishes it and makes it work. Lights are on now. It's dark. And I see her step back, and she just with no one else looking,

except me, who she doesn't know is watching her, she just goes And I think, okay. Good. But then all of a sudden, she just stares off into the sky. It's the weirdest thing. She got this like it's almost like, and the glory of the Lord showed about her. She got the most beautiful, angelic smile on her face.

There was no one around. And I could see this joy. And I was, wait, she's not a hypocrite. I thought her doing she got joy in doing the lights, and I realized that's not what happened. The joy she has for the season, the joy she has for the Lord, the joy she has of wanting it to be a great experience for her grandkids,

the joy she already has is why she puts up with doing the lights.

That's the good news, guys. It might be cold and dark in the field you're in, and you think God doesn't care. But just like those shepherds, he's coming into you, and he's breaking in with the the the the choir of angels, the message to say this good news is Jesus.

And the good news is he dove into this world, and he took your sin. And if you confess that

and turn to him and put your faith in that, he takes it. And now you're made right with him. You don't have to go to the show, put on the lights, do all the work to get him to love you. He already loves you. And then out of that joy, then you're gonna wanna follow him and trust him because you realize he did that for you.

You don't need that pressure. You can take that off. You can go back into. And even though you might head back into something that your experiences right now are tough, it's hard. He knows it. Some of you are really got some heavy stuff going on, and it's difficult, and it's painful, and it's hard. But guess what Jesus does if you put your faith in him? It says in Psalms 23,

which I don't care if you've never been to church. You've heard this at least once. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. When you put your faith in Christ, he doesn't promise to take you around those valleys. We're gonna be in valleys. You're gonna have ups and downs. You're gonna have unhappy moments. There's gonna be a lot of days you're gonna wake up and then you're you may say, well, I say I believe in Jesus, but in my heart, Bill's not happy right now. And you're gonna have those days.

It's gonna be hard. But what Jesus is saying is put your faith in me. And as you walk through that valley, I will take your hand, and I will walk with you through it. And on the other side, there is life, eternal life. That's where the joy comes from.

That's the good news. That's what Christmas is about. But you have to meet Jesus just like these shepherds did. So why don't we just all close our eyes, bow our heads, and I'm gonna give some of you a chance to join the over a thousand people that have met Jesus in the services we've done already.

It's simple. I'm gonna pray with you. And if you've never met Jesus in this way where you've just confessed, I'm a sinner. I've made it about me, but I'm gonna turn and put my faith in what Jesus did for me, then you can pray with me. Make it your own words between you and God. It's not a magic incantation,

but I'm gonna ask you to do something in faith, a symbolic action. Just like that Psalms 23 passage said, he will walk with you. So if you wanna pray with me right now, just hold your hand up high in the air as if you're grabbing Jesus' hand.

And almost in your heart, just imagine him. He's taking your hand right now as you hold your hand up. I see those hands. Just keep them up. Hold them up high. There you go. Keep them up while we pray. It's a cool thing. I see all those hands. Nice and high. You can join us.

And with your hands held high, just pray something like this. Thank you, Jesus, that I have sinned. I've made life about me. Even my attempts to be right with you have been about me. But right now, in the best way I know how, I turn from me, and I put my faith in you.

I put my faith in the fact that you lived a life I could not live and died a death I could never ever recover from. And you rose from the dead beating death to give me life. Thank you for being that sacrificial lamb. Thank you for diving into my darkness for me. Thank you for loving me and forgiving me.

Help me to go from this moment with that same joy that those shepherds did that first Christmas. No matter what field I'm going into, for the dark days, for the light days, and for every day in between, I want the joy that's found in the good news of you.

And God, I do pray for everyone who's got their hand raised right now. I pray that they would just feel you take their hand and and enter their hearts and help them to understand what this means and unpackage unpackage this and learn how to walk with you each and every day in that love, in that joy.

And that, Lord, I pray that for those that are heading back into their field and their field is dark and lonely and scary and and and and cold, that, Lord, that they will feel your warmth and your love like no other, that despite those circumstances, they will have the joy that comes from you.

And those that are walking out into a nice moment, a happy moment, and a good moment, that, Lord, they can remember that this is an absolute blessing for them right now, and they will not forget the joy of your love and your grace.

And, Lord, I pray that we would get this and understand this because that's why we come here today. That's what Christmas is all about. It's the good news of you, the joy that you give, and it is for all people. And that is why we sing and we shout joy to the world. Amen.

Stay in the scene, church.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come.

And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature

Yeah. Joyful. We give it up for all the people that just became new shepherds that entered the family tonight with all those hands that just went up. Amen to that. Welcome to the family all of you.

But hey, before we end here, we got one more song. We've been joyful. We've been upbeat, but guess what? That first Christmas also had some silent moments. There's also a silent night as well. And so we just wanna end with just a moment of reflection. One song that could make it your closing prayer

as you reflect on that silent night, that holy night.

So good. Can we give it up one more time for all those that said yes to Jesus?

We believe that you made the best decision of your life. And if that was you today, please don't leave without letting us know. We wanna connect with you, and the best way to do that is there's a QR code on the back of the seat in front of you. If you could scan that and fill that out so we can continue to walk with you, that would be amazing.

Also, if you need prayer or you just need to talk to someone, our prayer room is on this side of the auditorium, and it is open. We have a remarkable team that would love to connect with you before you take off today. Yes. We love gathering together every weekend, but we did wanna let you know that this weekend, December twenty eighth and twenty ninth, we will not be gathering together in person, but we will have an online experience

for you to watch from home. So make sure to visit rockpoint.io to find that. And then we'll be right back here the weekend of January fourth and fifth, and we're gonna be diving into a new series, studying the book of Ephesians,

is action packed, so you don't wanna miss out. Yes. So one of my favorite parts about Christmas is how much time we get to spend with our families. So we have an amazing family experience for you. Outside, we have free hot cocoa,

waffles, and Jeff, I heard that for the very first time, we have our very own Polar Express. Let's go. So make sure you go get in line for that. Thank you so much for joining us, and have a Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.