Ugly Sweater | Week 2

hey, if you missed last week, we just started a brand new message series called Ugly Sweater. If you're wondering why I'm wearing such a beautiful sweater, it's because what we're essentially talking through and walking through for the next couple weeks is this idea that kind of like Christmas sweaters that our our our faith

can be kind of like these traditions where we pull them out this time of the year and then the moment Christmas is over, we put them back in a box and we go about the rest of our lives and we don't really ever talk about our faith and what we've been kind of,

venturing and challenging ourselves with is to go, man, what would it look like for us to wear our faith all year long? Bill did a great job last week with his message and he essentially said that Christmas was never meant to be about a moment. It was always meant to be about a mission. And in our sermon

planning meetings, they threw out the idea of preaching in these sweaters, and I'm like, man, I'm a youth pastor. I've preached like 90% of my messages in some kind of ugly shirt or sweater. Like, I am totally down and on board. And then they tasked me with

going out and buying the sweaters. Right? Bill kind of made fun of me last week, but what he didn't tell you is that the hardest part about trying to find a sweater for Bill was trying to figure out did I buy a women's medium or

an actual extra large. I'm like, there's no way he can wear a shirt that's that tight unless it's a women's medium. You know, I'm like, they're they're

it's not natural. Like, you're not supposed to be that big. Okay? But I did, and I bought him the sweater. And, man, it's it's awesome, and I hope you guys have some incredible ugly sweaters that you can wear this season as well. Amen? Are

you guys excited that it's Christmas? Isn't Christmas just such a fun fun season? So I I didn't know. We rented a house in Powell Ranch, like, sight unseen. We literally just rented it. We saw it on the Internet. We're like, cool. We like it. Let's do it. And we didn't know, but that street is like the street that just goes crazy for all the holidays. K? So for Halloween, it was like the street to go on. I went I spent like $10,000

on candy because these kids just keep coming. Like, they just don't stop.

All of our neighbors decorate and stuff, and I thought Halloween was nuts. And then I saw what they do for Christmas. I was like, holy cow. The guy that lives two doors down from me is like the four year reigning champ of Power Ranch, and he I'm not kidding you. He holds back decorations until the night before judging because he is legitimately nervous that people are gonna steal his ideas.

And I'm like, Jeff, you're the only one that cares about this. Okay? It's part of why you win every year because nobody else is competing, but hey, tear it up, man. I was I was in his garage. He's gonna be here, tomorrow, and I'll get to tell him with him here. But,

he I I went in his garage. You should see his house. It's it's it's like Christmas exploded. It's just like a crazy amount of stuff. And in his garage, I'm not kidding, he has enough decorations for at least four more houses. I'm like, how do you have this much Christmas stuff? Like, who does this?

He does. So but there's something there's something about it like just turning onto my street and all of the houses are all decorated. You're just like, oh, man, this feels awesome. You go in the door and there's like a Christmas tree with lights on it and it just feels great, doesn't it? Like, you only have a few weeks of it, so let's enjoy it. But I was thinking about it this week as I was thinking about this message that

what they don't tell you as a kid is that Christmas gets a little bit like more and more

confusing as you get older, gets more complicated, right? When you're do you remember Christmas as a kid? Like Christmas as a kid was like the greatest thing ever and I I love having kids now and watching Christmas through their eyes because it's just such a simple

holiday, right? They just look forward to the gifts, they rip them open, they enjoy it, they celebrate it, they're not thinking through all of the complicated nuances of Christmas that we as adults have to navigate, right? If if where where are my single people at? Throw your hands up if you're single. It's okay to be proud of it. Throw your hands up. Don't be the creepy guy that stares too long, but you can look a little bit, okay? If

you're single in here at some point, maybe this has happened to you, you've gone to some type of holiday dinner, right, and you had the one relative, aunt, uncle, grandmother, or somebody that looked at you and you've walked in the door and they're like, oh, you're still single,

You're like, yeah, thanks for the reminder. I didn't know, so thanks for letting me know, and then they say something like, isn't it about time for a wedding in the family?

And if that happens to you this Christmas season, I give you permission, this is how you shut that conversation down, okay? Just look at them and go, isn't it about time for a funeral in this family? I promise they won't go any further. Right? But

Christmas gets like when you're a kid, it's just so simple and then the older you get, it just gets more complicated. But single people hear me. Okay? It doesn't get any less complicated when you get married. Right? All my married folks know Christmas is kind of complicated. Right? You navigate the holidays with some in laws and you deserve a badge. Okay? You deserve some type of medal,

especially if you're like my family where there's been like 35 divorces and you're like, wait, who are you? Why are you here? I don't, Oh, you're not related at all, but we call you grandpa. Like, okay, cool. I'm good with that. Let's do it. And you have to try to navigate.

Wait. Wait. I I can't eat 35 meals in one day. So somebody

something has to give here. Okay? I can't just and they're like, but you spent this amount of time with them last year, I'm like, dude, you gotta figure it out. Okay? We're I'm at this spot now. We've been married for, ten years where I'm just like, I'm doing Christmas here. Whoever wants to come can come. Okay? Past that, I'm not driving around and trying to eat 35 meals with everybody, but can we agree Christmas gets complicated the older you get? I

want to tell you a story just to really teach all my guys here a lesson. When I was newly married, I wasn't always the

expert on women that I am today. K? There was there was a period that I had to learn because I I I had believed when I married my wife that she was honest and that she would tell the truth and that women were not complicated. K? I have since learned that all of that is not true, and it is a lie from the pit of hell. K? So I think it was our second Christmas together, and my wife, if you know her, is like the sweetest person in the world. K? We are like the complete,

opposites attract. Okay. She's amazing. I'm the opposite of whatever that is. Okay. And I'm not kidding. It was like two or three weeks before Christmas. I'm trying to ask her like, hey, what do you want for Christmas?

And she literally says the answer that if you know my wife would make complete sense. And she said, I don't need a gift. Like, you're the only gift that I need. And I was like, yeah, that makes sense. Like that's I get that. I understand. Like, if I could give myself me, I would too. So that's it's a pretty awesome gift.

So so and I'm telling you, so I'm naive, right? All the guys who've been married for a while, you're laughing with me because Christmas morning comes rolling around and I have no gift, okay? I believed her. And so we make breakfast. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I I I make breakfast and we're kinda sitting there and I'm like, man, it's Christmas morning. It's awesome. And she pulls out the gift that she's gotten me and she's kinda looking at me funny, but I don't really I'm still figuring out what women's looks means because they all mean something different, but they look kinda the same. And so I'm like, what's happening right now? Why is she looking at me so weird? And then at some point, she finally just asks me the question. She goes, did you really not get me a gift? And I'm like, I mean I'm right here, like what do you mean? I mean I thought I was your gift

and I learned a powerful lesson. Gentlemen, hear me, okay? If a woman ever tells you she doesn't want a gift, she is lying and the truth is not in her, okay? They always always always

want gifts and you're like, why are you telling us this? Okay? Here's here's why. I hope it kind of illustrates a point that we're gonna talk about tonight in that there there's these times that you just completely miss it. Right? There's these times that you just completely swing

and miss. You just completely miss the point of what really is taking place.

We're going through and looking at the Christmas story in in a gospel account, book in the Bible that narrates the life of Jesus. If you're newer to church, there's four books in the Bible that talk through the life of a guy named Jesus, right? It's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Typically around Christmas, we walk through the book of Luke and we go through the story that's pretty famous of there are shepherds and an angel and a star and Jesus is born and we talk through all that stuff and it's awesome but this year we're looking at the Savior's story,

the Christmas story through the book of John and it's a much different narrative.

It's a much different story that doesn't focus on the moment, like Bill said last week, it's more about a mission. John is trying to articulate to you and I that this whole thing called Christmas was never meant to just be a rallying point one time a year that we came together to celebrate the moment.

It was meant to be a catalytic event that sent us on mission

and that mission this week, if you're taking notes, here's a big idea that we're going to work from. Bill said last week that Christmas wasn't about a moment, it's a mission. That mission is to be the light of the world and we're gonna look at a story in John chapter two where these guys kind of just miss it. Okay? They don't really get what's happening. So if you have a bible, go to John chapter

two. As you turn there, me pray for us real quickly. Father, we need you, we trust you, we believe that you can take these moments that we have together and make them something so much greater than what they are without the power of the Holy Spirit. So Father, would you speak to us this evening?

Would you let us walk out of here with life transformation, not just information? And God, I thank you for helping the Chargers win the Super Bowl this year. In Jesus' name, everybody said,

you guys just prayed for the Chargers. Hey. It doesn't matter the Cardinals aren't getting there anyway, so you might as well rally with the San Diego. I guess it's the LA folks now, but hey, it is what it is. So John chapter one, we we read through last week. If you missed it, go online and watch it. It's it's essentially the start of Jesus's life, but it doesn't focus on the moment in the birth story. It really talks about the mission that Jesus

came here to accomplish. And John chapter one ends with him recruiting his team. K? He gets a couple of his first disciples. Well, John two starts, goes right into Jesus' first miracle. We start to see the thing that Jesus has in him, incredible nature

that he walks with and he goes to this wedding and he turns water to wine and it's kind of this weird story that's like, man, what does this mean? It makes the Baptists really upset because there's wine and it's real wine and they're like, dude, I don't get this, but he turns water to wine

and then a couple days after that story, and I wish we had more time to go into all of it, but we do have these incredible John devotional books that you can grab on your way out that will go more in-depth into all of these stories in the book of John, I would encourage you grab one of those on your way out,

But a couple days after that wedding, this is where we're gonna pick up reading in verse 13. Are you tracking with me so far? Okay. I got two of you. Awesome. John chapter two verse 13. It says that it was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration. So Jesus went to Jerusalem.

Let let me catch you up before we read the story that we're gonna see of the guys who who miss it. Okay. The the Bible says that Jesus is going to Jerusalem for this festival called Passover.

This is something that Jesus would have done every single year as a Jewish boy, okay, they would have gone every single year to the temple, right, they were living in a time where there weren't multiple churches that were all around, there was one temple

that existed in Jerusalem and they were celebrating this festival called Passover. If you go all the way back to the Old Testament when the nation of Israel, God's people, the Jews, were in captivity,

God came and delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians. He sent Moses through the burning bush to go to Pharaoh, throw a stick on the ground, make it a snake, and say, hey, it's time to let my people go. And Pharaoh doesn't believe him. He doesn't get it. And so Moses starts to tell him through God's word and through God's inspiration, hey,

God's gonna start sending all of this stuff, all of these plagues to you to make you realize, dude, you better believe him. God's real. Okay? Well, the last one of those plagues, because Pharaoh just doesn't get it and he doesn't believe Moses,

God tells him, I'm going take the firstborn son of every family, but He tells Moses, make sure that my people take the blood of a lamb, put it over their door, when the angel comes in the night, that I will pass over the doors that have the blood on them. So every year, the Jews would come together to celebrate

the faithfulness of God to deliver them from the hands of their oppressors, the Egyptians, and really to foreshadow the story of Jesus being the sacrificial lamb that would atone for all of us. Okay, so that's the historical background to understand what Passover is.

It's a big deal is the biggest thing you have to understand. I think the only way that we could really understand the modern equivalency of what happens during Passover is very much like the season that we are in right now with Christmas. The population of Jerusalem

where the Passover celebration would take place averaged about 200 to 300,000 people throughout the year. During Passover, it would go as high as 3,000,000 people.

It's like Gilbert during the winter. Okay? It's like, where did all you people come from? When you was 120 out here, I didn't see none of you and now I see all of you. Okay? It goes from not a ton of people to tons

of people. Right? And again, this is something that Jesus would have done every single year with his family. If you read, there's this really funny story when he's 12 or 13 where he gets left in the temple because he's there and his parents are like, where did he go? And they find him and he's back at the temple telling his mom, don't you know I have to be in the house of God?

So we see this celebration where all of these people are coming to the temple who wouldn't normally be there. I'm trying to set up and tell you this is the best parallel I think we can see in Scripture to what we are about to experience with Christmas.

The question is, is will we miss the opportunity that Christmas is going to present us like the Jews missed the opportunity that Passover presented them. You guys tracking with me? Perfect, let's go, let's keep reading.

Verse 14, it says, In the temple area, he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices He also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Verse 15 says that Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the temple. He drove out the sheep and the cattle, He scattered the money changers,

the coins all over the floor, and he turned over their tables. Then going over to the people who sold the doves, he told them, get these things out of here. Stop turning my father's house into a marketplace. Now this is a story when you first read it that you just go, what just happened?

This is also a story if you read the other gospel accounts, okay, we're reading John, you read the other three, the same story is in all four of them. Jesus' birth isn't even recorded in all four of them and there's two schools of thoughts into what's taking place in the Gospel of John with this particular story

because if you read the other Gospel accounts, this same story takes place at the very end of Jesus' public ministry right before he goes to the cross.

But in John's account, it takes place at the very beginning. So some people believe that this is the same events that all four authors are writing about, but John just happened to put it in the beginning and never claimed it to be chronologically correct.

But what I believe and what I think the evidence really points to is that this actually happened two times. This exact thing of Jesus walking into the temple, getting frustrated with what's happening in front of him, making a whip and driving people out takes place two times.

At the very beginning of his ministry, to kind of set the tone and the temperature for who he is and what he's about and again at the very end before he goes through the cross so nobody can forget what he was trying to say. And he goes and he walks in the temple

and the Bible says he sees these people that are selling all kinds of animals and it's like, okay, what's happening? Right? We don't really understand any of the things that happened at the temple, so let me give you a little bit of background so we can understand what made Jesus so upset.

Every family that would come to Passover would bring with them a sacrifice. They would bring an animal that they were going to sacrifice that year.

That animal would be the sacrifice that would atone for them for the previous year and really it was declaration about what they believed God was gonna do in the year to come. But the challenge was is what they were instructed to do is to bring an unblemished sacrifice to the temple. They were to bring their best animal

to the temple, but they did the same thing that we kind of do sometimes today and they thought it would be easier, some people thought it would be easier to just give to God out of their leftovers, not their first fruits.

They would go, you know what, know I'm supposed to give my best in an unblemished animal, but I've got this three legged goat that's been around for a while and I'm not doing anything with it anyways, let's just take him with us to Jerusalem, we'll sacrifice him and we'll go about our business and we'll do this all again next year. So the priests that were running the temple

had to figure out, man, what do we do? How do we how do we implement God's plan for people? And so what they started to do is they would have somebody that would stand outside and they would inspect the animals and they would say, hey, it's got to be an unblemished animal

and I'm sure in the very beginning when they started doing this, they were really honest and they actually were only disqualifying the animals that were not acceptable

and they would go, hey, the three legged goat man, that thing's cool but you're supposed to bring an unblemished animal bro, you didn't read the rule book, okay, you've got to bring an unblemished animal but the problem now becomes what do you do with the family that just walked four days to get here with three legged goat that's now standing before you going, we want to do this

but what do we practically do? Do we walk back home four days and then come back and miss Passover? So what the priests started to do is they had their own animals, they would raise the animals that were there and they said, hey, just buy one of ours, these ones work, these are unblemished, these are totally okay.

So they would buy an animal, they would go to it, they would sacrifice the animal and they would go about their business and they would do this year after year. Well, you fast forward that practice over forty five years and what began to happen is these priests at some point realised, hey, our building campaign

just isn't really getting funded. Okay, we've been trying to build this temple for the last forty years and history tells us it's going to take them another twenty years to build it. This temple that they're going to took them sixty six years to build. You know how long that temple stood for? Four years.

The temple crumbled in seventy AD and I believe the big reason, not just because Jesus is the new temple, because the way they built the temple is it was built in the way that God never told them to do and the scriptures are clear that a house built on sand will not stand.

And what the priest at some point realizes that man before us is an incredible business opportunity because if we just kind of start to say that every animal is unblemished and we just start to disqualify every animal, even the families that sacrificed,

even the animals that even the families that did their best to bring their best animal, just tell them it's got a weird eyebrow or something, okay, and we'll tell them, 'Hey, that animal doesn't work, you've got to buy one of ours.'

They said, 'If we can disqualify every animal, we can start making tons of money. We'll have this place built in no time.' They're like, 'That's brilliant. Get the attorneys, let's figure out how to do this, and they create this system where every single animal that came would have been disqualified.

I read some stuff this week that said it could have gotten so bad that what they would have done is they would have said, hey, We'll buy your animal from you so you don't have to worry about bringing it back. We'll buy it for 5¢, walk you around the corner, and sell you essentially the exact same animal for $10

but we weren't just gonna hose you on the purchase of the animal. We also need you to purchase this animal with temple money

because the coins you have have pagan gods on them, they have the Roman emperor on them, those are not acceptable here. So we've created the modern day version of Chuck E. Cheese money, it's called temple cash, so you need to transfer all of your money into Temple Cash before you buy the animal. Oh, and by the way,

the exchange rate is terrible for you. So you're going to lose money on the exchange rate and then you're going to lose money on the purchase of the animal. Welcome to the temple. We're glad you're here.

As I was thinking about it this week, I I I went to Cabo with my wife, and I don't know if you guys have ever traveled international, but the moment you get off the plane and I I should have figured like it was Mexico. I wasn't going to like some foreign land, but I got off the plane convinced that you had to buy everything in pesos. So I took every penny that I had. I had like $400. I walked up to this exchange place in the airport. I was like, here it is. I need pesos.

And then I get into the taxi and I'm trying to speak in the broken Spanish that I have. The guy turns around in English and he's like, where are guys going? I'm like, oh, cool. You speak English. Let's do this. He's like, why do you have pesos? You should have just given us money. Was like, I don't know. I thought I had to exchange it all. Then he said, you didn't exchange it at the airport, did you? Was like, no, yes, dang it, like I did and he's like that's the worst place that you can possibly exchange money. They're always gonna get you. So I came up with a genius plan. I like, I'll just keep all this money. I won't spend a dime of it. I'll just use my credit card the whole time and I'll turn it back in when I get back to the airport and I'll get all my money back. Well, guys had a brilliant plan set up. They don't buy the money back from you at the same rate that they sold you the money back. So not only did I lose money on the way in, but I lost money on the way out. So long story short, don't exchange your money at the airport.

Because if you do, it's gonna be like going to the temple. Back in Jesus' day. They're gonna hose you because they're in the business of making money and so this is what Jesus walks into. Okay? John chapter one, he recruits his team. He gets his team. He goes to a wedding and he commit he he he makes the first miracle.

He does the first miraculous act that we've seen and then the very next time, he goes to the temple to celebrate Passover with his new disciples that are following him and he walks in just like he has every other year And he walks in and immediately he starts to go, what is happening? What is taking place here?

And I love what Jesus does because he just goes and he sits in the corner and he starts making a whip.

Like you might have been mad at some point but I don't know if you've ever been this mad. Like how mad do you have to be to just sit in the corner and build a whip like just slowly and methodically like making eye contact with everybody like, yeah, I'm gonna beat you with this when I'm done.

This is like your dad saying, hey, go upstairs, get the belt and wait for me. You're like, oh god, this is gonna be terrible. Alright. He goes, this hurts me more than you. I'm like, I'll trade you like we can change. But Jesus just sits in the corner and he builds this whip and all of a sudden he drives everybody

out. He's flipping tables. He's spiking cash registers. He's he is clearly not happy. I've read some stuff this week that said he wasn't angry and I was like, don't I don't know how else to describe that response if it's not anger, right? Because people are afraid that if Jesus got angry that means that He sinned,

but anger isn't a sin, it's what's behind the anger and what we do with the anger that typically causes us to sin. Something about what's taking place in the temple, in the house of God is making Jesus not pumped to say the least. The question is, why is Jesus so mad? What is happening

that would cause him to literally build a whip and beat people to get them out of the temple?

And the thing that you have to understand about the way the temple works, we have a picture if we can throw it up so I can show you because I don't think it's really what they were doing that was the only problem.

I think it was how they were doing it and more importantly where they were doing it that caused the greatest issue. So if you see, here's a

of a model of the temple. Okay? The little part with the stairs going up, that's the Holy Of Holies where only the priests could go, and they really only could go once a year. And then right there on the inner part, it says the inner court. Okay? That's where all the Jews could go. If you were not a Jew,

the only place that you were allowed to go was this outside area called the Court Of The Gentiles. Okay? Bad news for all of us. We are Gentiles. Okay? So we all would have been out here in the Court Of The Gentiles. The story that we are reading in John chapter two is taking place right here in the Court Of Gentiles.

So Jesus is walking into the temple and he walks into what is supposed to be this beacon of hope in a world of darkness. He's walking into the temple that is supposed to cry out the goodness of God and immediately he is met with the experience of what somebody who would be a not a non Jew is going to walk into.

Somebody who was not an insider, sometime during the year, hears about Yahweh, hears about the goodness of this God,

and they go, you know what? We're gonna go. We're gonna go to Passover. We're gonna celebrate because we believe this, this is awesome, this is good. They walk into the church and immediately what they're met with

is a table that goes, hey man, you're disqualified because that's not good enough, you better have a bunch of money and Jesus sees this and he goes, this is going to be the first experience of people who are far from God?

This is going to be people who are not part of the insiders club when they walk in the door, this is what they're going to be met with? And I think what he's trying to show the disciples is to to get them to fully understand that man, there are going to be times where action is required.

That there are going to be times when you see onjustices that happen inside of the church that should make you upset,

that should make you mad and I know tonight when you walked in the door that there weren't tables that were there where we asked you to pay the price of admission and if you couldn't afford it, that you needed to come back later. But here's my fear. My fear is that the church today unintentionally

does the same thing to people who are far from God. My fear is that this holiday season as people walk in the door, they're immediately going to be met with the exact same things that we believe disqualify them from being allowed to be here.

I wonder if we took a survey of people that lived in the area and we just asked them, hey, what what are Christians known for? What are the what do they stand for? Who are they? How do they treat people? My fear is I think they would all talk about all the things they know that we are against.

They would go, I think you've got to vote like this and on these key issues, you've got to make sure you vote here and you can't have tattoos or you need to have more tattoos, you can't have piercings or you should have more, they'll hear all of the stuff that the church is against but they won't know what we're for.

They won't know that the church is supposed to be the hope of the world. That the same thing that made Jesus upset is one of those things that we have to ask God to search our hearts and to go, God, are there things in our hearts and in our lives that unintentionally put barriers between people when they walk in the door.

When somebody walks in the door this holiday season, what are they going to be met with? Are they gonna be met with the things that we believe that Christianity, when you really boil it down, it's really about these five things

or is our message that man, I'm telling you it doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter what you've done, the message of Jesus is the greatest message the world has ever heard and the church is supposed to be a city on a hill, a light into the darkness that we saw last week in John one that it doesn't matter how dark the world gets, the church will always be the beacon of hope that God always wanted it to be.

And what the Jews didn't realize is the way that God designed the temple was always supposed to communicate that to the world. Because if you notice the largest part of the temple, did you see what the biggest part of the temple was? It was the court of the Gentiles. Throw it up real fast so we can see it again.

The biggest part of the entire temple was the court of the Gentiles. The literal temple was designed to show the world that God came for the world. Jesus has come for those who are lost. He said, the the healthy don't need a doctor. It's the sick that need a doctor. It's the broken

that he has come for. And, man, I think sometimes we unintentionally just settle in to playing church and we kind of just start to go through the motions and I don't think it's intentional. I don't think that we choose to do it. I think sometimes it's just routine

over a long period of time and all of a sudden what we do is we just settle into the things that we've always done and we forget that we are God's plan a to reach this world and there is no plan b.

We forget that this church exists, yes, for us. This Christmas season, man, I hope you and your family come and have an incredible experience, that you come and you get to have moments that are filled with joy, that you come to this Christmas light show and you enjoy it but if it's only ever for you

and you don't remember that there are people that are around you that are hurting and broken that need to hear about the good news of Jesus, I'm telling you, we're missing it. We are settling for Christmas to be just a moment and we are missing the missional component of it.

Imagine if the priests got together before Passover and they said, guys, check it out. Our temple is about to get filled with all kinds of new visitors.

Here's what we need to do, we need to figure out every single thing that is creating a barrier to entrance into this place and we need to get rid of it. We need to create a space that is welcoming, that communicates that God is for people, that He loves people, that He is in pursuit of people.

Because what happens when you begin to realize that Christmas should catalyze us onto the mission field and that mission field is to reach this world with the gospel, what it begins to do is it lets us see the moments very differently.

Part of why we have this Christmas light show coming up is not because we've got like a full time staff guy that just designs lighting stuff all year long and he's like, I've been waiting, like, let's do this.

We basically had one guy that said, hey, this could be a cool idea and we realized that this would be an incredible opportunity to leverage this season for the mission of Christmas.

To create a space where people could come and not feel like they have to have everything together and we won't even ask them to walk in the church, we'll just go to the parking lot. And we will talk about the light of the world by turning our entire building into a giant light

and then at the very end, we'll invite them to Christmas service where they will hear about the goodness of Jesus and how he is in love with them and the thing that I know is I sit with people and I ask them why they don't go to church, even when I talk with my neighbors, it's not God that they have a problem with.

A lot of times, they've walked in the door, they've come to the temple and they were immediately met with all of the reasons why they shouldn't be there.

Because they didn't do this enough, they didn't believe like us, and we fly the banner high that says come as you are, but if we're honest, I think what we really mean is come as we are.

We say walk in the door as you are. As long as you dress like this and say these things and don't do these things, we are cool with you being in process but we would prefer you to be a completed project and then walk in the door. I think we forget about where God met us at.

I think we forget about how broken and far from God we were and yes, God has taken us on a journey and God has brought us to where we are today But I think my fear is that the default positions of our heart if we're not careful is rebellion or religion.

And my hope is that we, this Christmas season, would search our hearts and go, God, where have we put barriers in place for people who don't know you? Because yes, the temple has been destroyed, but you and I are the temple of Jesus today. Our bodies, but us collectively,

this building is the temple of God and we have been given an incredible mandate from heaven and it is that you and I get to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We get to be like the city that is on a hill, we get to be a light into the darkness and I pray that our light would shine brightly

and that we would be able to tell people it doesn't matter what you've done, it doesn't matter how far you've gone, there's nothing that disqualifies you from the greatest message the world has ever heard because you can't earn

this thing called grace, it's a free gift and we tell them about Jesus and I'm telling you, this season gives you and I an incredible opportunity if we will cease it and I want to end if you read the next verse, the disciples finally, I think they finally catch on and I hope we would do the same. Verse 17,

his disciples kind of sit back and they watch all of this take place Then this is their response and the disciples remembered the prophecy from Scripture that says passion for God's house will consume me.

The disciples have to be a bit freaked out, right? They've been walking with Jesus for a couple days, they're still trying to remember his name, right? They just left John and they're now following Jesus and all of a sudden this guy's making whips and driving people out, he's like, what's happening?

And then I think it clicks, I think they realise this guy didn't come to just play church. He's out with the old and he's ushering in an entirely new kingdom and he is in desperate pursuit of those who the church has told forever that they don't belong here

And then they remember a scripture that David prayed all the time in Psalm 69 that says, we should be people who are passionate for God's house.

And I have to tell you the passion for God's house is not just for us. Yes, we should walk in the door and yes, we should be passionate and we should get things out of it, but we should have a passion for God's house that goes, man, I am going to drag every person around me and my neighbors are gonna be here tomorrow and my the secret's gonna be out, but my relationship with all of them is to leverage it to get them here because yes, I love them. Yes, I like my neighbors, but I like my neighbors because I know how much Jesus can change their life because he changed mine and if I can get them in the door and Jesus can begin that process in their lives, I know that in return, He will give them a life that is beyond their wildest dreams.

And so I leverage everything that I can to go, guys, this is the end goal. This is the end aim and it's something that we say at young adults all the time, we are plan A. There is no plan b. We are the people that God has called to reach the world. So let me boil all of this down for you, make it really simple.

This Christmas season is the greatest opportunity that we have to bring people and help reshape the narrative of what church and Jesus is for them.

On your way out, we have a table set up with these cards with candy canes on them, like how much easier does it get? You get a candy cane and a card, right? Like that's a hustle and you can invite them to Christmas services. You can invite them to come and I'm telling you, it's crazy how many

people when they're just asked say yes. But maybe you're like, dude, Christmas services is way too far. I'm not doing that, that's crazy. We have this lighting show that's going to be incredible

and I'm telling you, we didn't just do it for the sake of creating a lighting show for all the people in our church. Yes, we want you to enjoy it, don't hear what I'm not saying but we did it because we know that it's an incredible opportunity to show this world who we are

and it's not just what we're against, it's not just the things that you've been told Christians stand for, that we believe at the end of the day that salvation is for all people and that God loves you and He's pursuing you.

If you can just walk into the door and you can experience everything that He has for you, I'm telling you, He will absolutely change your life. So my simple challenge to you this Christmas season is that you would look through your life, think through relatives and coworkers and neighbors and friends that you have,

that you can be the key component into reshaping the narrative of what Jesus and what the church has been to them and that this holiday season, we would see it's not just about a moment,

that it should be something that sends us on mission and that mission is to be the light of the world. Amen? Would you guys pray with me? Father, God, we thank you so much for what this season represents, that God, you stepped down from heaven, you stepped out of perfection and You came down to our broken world as a baby

and Father, You lived a perfect life and died the death that we deserve and You did it because You knew that that was the only way to have relationship with us and Father, I thank you that grace is a free gift that we can't earn and Father, if there's people that are here tonight and they've been told

that the church or Jesus stands for something that you never said that you stood for, God, would you begin the process of softening

their heart and reshaping their narrative where they know that this is a place that they can belong, that they can come as they are and that yes, God, you love them so much that you won't just leave them there, that you will take them on the journey but God, it is you that sanctifies, we don't have to do it

and Father, would you show us people in our life, in our world, that we can actually be the hands and feet of Jesus too? God, make it really simple. Show us a couple people, neighbors or coworkers or relatives that we can bring to the Christmas light show or we can bring to the Christmas Eve services

because we believe that you love them and you are in pursuit of them. Jesus, we love you so much. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen and amen.