CHRISTMAS EVE- "CHRISTMAS CHANGES EVERYTHING"

INTRO

Good evening and Merry Christmas! My name is Ryan, I’m one of the pastors here at Georgianna.

It is so good to be able to celebrate with you all today… We are just so happy that you made Georgianna a part of your Christmas tradition this year.

So if you are in person… or watching online… let me wish you a very Merry Christmas.

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And I don’t take it lightly that I am preaching tonight...

Let me tell you how this normally goes… The Senior Pastor preaches on the big days of the year. Christmas Eve, Easter… these are non-negotiables.

And it’s the days AFTER the big days when everyone is exhausted… these are the international Associate Pastor preaching days. You can check the church calendar… it’s on there.

But your Senior Pastor is different.

Yes… he’s a big guy.

Yes… he has a big voice.

Yes… he can command a room.

But this is one of the most humble men that I have ever met.

And since I have the stage now I want to tell you that I love and appreciate you… [WALKING DOWN TO HUG]

You believed in me and affirmed me and trusted me in ways that I never received anywhere else.

I am so grateful for you as my pastor and mentor and boss.

ME

Whew… glad we got that out of the way… :)

So something you may not know about me… Some people think I’m kind of a coffee person… Not sure where they get that idea. [TAKES A LONG SIP OF COFFEE]

Here’s the weird thing… I got through college without being a coffee drinker… exactly when most people would need it.

I started my career without being a coffee person… having to wake up super early every day to earn that paycheck… didn’t need coffee.

But everything changed about 13 years ago.

For several years before attending seminary I was a Worship Pastor… I did what Nick does.

And in these churches we did NOT practice Simple Christmas. December was event after event after event.

And one of those events was always a large-scale Christmas worship production.

And it was NOT simple.

And I can remember getting a jump start on this stuff around August and September thinking I was WAY ahead of the game…

and before I knew it Thanksgiving had come and gone… and I was looking at some LOOOOOONG work days if I was going to wrap this thing up in time.

And thus my relationship with coffee was born… just for those LONG work days.

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In several years of planning Christmas productions, my favorite was a show called “God With Us.”

It focused on this idea that, at Christmas, we celebrate a God who wanted to be WITH us, a God who wanted to be among His people.

It was in the songs that we sang together...

It was in the skit that was performed...

It was in the video pieces that were featured.

The whole show culminated to a scene that featured real stories of real people who had felt God ​with​ them in their lives.

*A man at a career crossroads and God was with him.

*A family recovering from a tornado that literally obliterated their house... and God was with them.

*A woman in the throes of chemotherapy... and God was with her.

*A woman who had buried her husband that year... A man who had buried his 8 year old grandson that year...

*One of my favorites was a woman that we worked with who had experienced a rougher life growing up in Chic-AH-go… and she said that God MUST be with her because she was finally able to quit smoking ! :-)

***And all of them stepped up to the microphone and told these brave stories... and said confidently that God was with them.

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And ever since then… the idea that God is WITH us can just grip my heart when I think about Christmas.

WE

But wait… hasn’t this always been the case? Like… when did God ever leave, right?

Okay… yes, it’s amazing that the God of the universe loves me and wants to have a relationship with me… but hasn’t He always been WITH us?

I think for us to understand how truly amazing this is we have to go back to the story before the story… the pre-Jesus story…

OPENING PRAYER

GOD

Throughout so much of the Old Testament there is this view of God as almost unapproachable.

You start with Adam and Eve… these are names you’ve probably heard before… but they make this massive mistake in their relationship with God… and now their interaction with Him becomes extremely fragile.

And there is a reason for this.

God is holy.

And Adam and Eve… and everyone in history and everyone of us in this room… well… we are not.

And holiness is dangerous to unholiness in the same way that light is dangerous to darkness. It can’t co-exist… one puts the other out.

God’s holiness is dangerous… not because it’s BAD… but because it’s so GOOD.

And it is perilous to those of us who are not holy and not always good.

And you see this again and again in scripture. God IS good, but being in the presence of God is something else entirely.

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***There is the story of the burning bush… And Moses sees it and just can’t help but go investigate...

I mean you would HAVE to go and see what was going on.

But God tells him, “Don’t come any closer!”

Like God doesn’t want to destroy Moses in the process.

And once Moses realizes Who he is speaking to the story says he hides his face because he is so afraid!

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***Later on there is a prophet Isaiah who has this vision of entering into the throne room of God. And honestly, what he describes is terrifying!

He says that just God’s robes fill the temple.‌

He describes these really strange looking angels that fly with 2 wings… BUT they cover their faces with 2 more wings… and then they have 2 more covering their feet!

He says the whole place is shaking and filling with smoke.

And unlike Moses… Isaiah knows what’s up immediately… and he knows where he is and he should NOT be there.…

He talks about how unclean he is standing there in God’s presence.

And he literally says, “I AM RUINED!”

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And then thousands of years go by and there is this other piece of art that shows us exactly what a bad idea it is to

***open the box that was supposed to contain God’s presence...

You’ve seen this right?

This story doesn’t end well!

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So as the Jewish religion begins to take shape there was one guy whose job it was to go into the holiest place in God’s temple… The Holy of Holies, they called it…

And it was his job to go and approach God and make sacrifices on behalf of everyone else… in God’s presence.

And you’ve heard about this if you’ve been to Vineyard Bible Study… there is this Jewish tradition that says that THAT guy would tie a rope around his foot…

Just in case he wasn’t pure enough...

Because if he wasn’t pure enough he might just be struck dead in God’s presence…

And the rope was there so they could then pull his body out.

Cause I’m not going in after it… would you go in after it?

In fact they would cast lots (kind of like rolling the dice) to see who that guy was going to be. And if you won… it really kind of meant that you lost, right?

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This reminds me… several years ago Allie and I took a vacation like most young couples do… we went to Cancun.

While there we decided to take the tour to the ancient Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza.

And among the many amazing things you’ll see there you’ll see what is still standing of a ball court. The site of this ancient sport from that part of the world.

However, carved into the panels of the remains are… some interesting depictions of the winners.

And I don’t know if your tour guide was the same as mine, but according to him it was often the WINNING TEAM’S captain who was sacrificed… not the other way around… because it was an honor apparently.

I’m so happy we now have a different definition of what honor means today…

And so if you won… you really kind of lost right?

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This is what would happen with the priests… of course it would be a high honor… but you probably didn’t want it!

You get the idea right? There is this overwhelming sense that, even though God is good… He is SO good in fact that His goodness may destroy us like light destroying darkness.

And so you didn’t just approach God… and it probably didn’t feel like a God who was WITH His people.

And, listen, I’m not saying God preferred it like this… in fact, I know He didn’t… but to the Israelite people… to the Old Testament people… The idea of “God With Us” may have felt impossible.

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And THIS is what we need to understand if we REALLY want to talk about Christmas.

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The idea of God being with YOU may feel impossible.

Maybe the idea of being here among what might feel like God’s holy people feels like a place you don’t belong.

Maybe it’s just that thing that your family does each year to check it off the box.

I get it. Sometimes I feel like Isaiah… God is so good and Holy… and I. AM. RUINED.

REFLECTIONS

But this thing about God being unapproachable… I don’t think that was God’s design at all.

I wonder if WE did that.

I wonder if that’s who WE THINK He is sometimes.

Sometimes we think we have to clean ourselves up before we can pray or go to church… here’s the deal. If that’s the church you’re going to… you go find a new church!

Because God desires something different…

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Here’s how I know this...

Let me tell you about one more vision in the Old Testament.

Listen, I know it’s Christmas Eve, I promise we’ll get to Jesus… just hang with me.

One more prophet… a man named Ezekiel… has a vision about God’s temple.

The place where they thought God lived.

The place where the high priest might be killed if he wasn’t pure enough…

This is that temple.

***Ezekiel has this vision of the temple… and it is leaking...

And I get so excited about this part of the story… you probably have no idea why…

Stick with me...

THIS IS A GAME-CHANGER.

THE TEMPLE IS LEAKING!

And Ezekiel follows the trickle until its ankle deep.

And then he follows it some more and its knee deep.

And then he follows it some more and its waist deep.

And then the river is so big and powerful that he can’t cross it.

And in Ezekiel’s vision he is told that the water continues to flow and it brings life to everything it touches...

And it empties out into the Dead Sea… and guess what happens there.

A Sea that is so poisoned with salt that nothing can live… begins to come alive.

Because the temple is leaking.

The temple that they thought held in God’s presence has sprung a leak… and here’s the shocker...

instead of God’s holiness destroying all the dead, dirty stuff it touches… it brings it to life instead!

It SPREADS holiness and goodness and life instead. Does this sound like anyone else you’ve heard of?

You see, all along we thought that God’s presence might just destroy us… it turns out that it can bring us back to life!

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***At this point for Ezekiel it’s a vision… BUT if you're patient enough and you wait long enough then history itself gets broken open by the cries of an infant.

History splits wide open… seriously we literally mark time this way… BC… Before Christ and AD… Anno Domini (In the year of our Lord).

Like even if you’re not a believer, you’re STILL living 2,022 years… into the era of our LORD.

And this infant has several names… one is Emmanuel…a Hebrew name...

It means God With Us.

The temple of God, the Holy of Holies, has sprung a leak.

AND THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.

In His ministry Jesus walks around healing people that He shouldn’t heal… because what if He catches it?

Touching people that He shouldn’t touch… because what if He gets dirty?

And instead of His holiness destroying someone because they’re unholy… and instead of Him catching their sickness or infirmity… they catch His goodness.

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This is the opposite of what we know as a contagion now.

It’s not like I can go to the hospital and be close enough to a sick person so that they catch my health!

I mean if COVID has taught us anything, right…?

No it may very well work the other way.

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But the temple… the Holy of Holies… has sprung a leak…

and Jesus is the presence of God moving in and among His people… like that river… bringing life to things that we thought were dead.

APPLICATIONS

***It’s no longer about whether we are impure in God’s presence… it’s about being MADE pure BY God’s presence.

***It’s no longer about whether we are impure in God’s presence… it’s about being MADE pure BY God’s presence.

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.

EVERYTHING CHANGES with Christmas. EVERYTHING CHANGES with Jesus.

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.

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If you’re a World War I buff you’ve probably heard this story before… have you heard of the Christmas Truce of 1914?

As the story goes… as Christmas approached in 1914 it seems that the best of our humanity began to emerge.

British troops and German troops began to shout greetings to each other from the trenches.

On Christmas Day as far I as can tell it was just an unnamed soldier who got the guts to lift his head out of the trenches and walk out unarmed.

He walked out into what they called “No Man’s Land,” the area between the shooting… and more soldiers began to follow suit on both sides.

***And on Christmas Day 1914 both sides shook hands and swapped gifts and honored their humanity together. They traded coffee and souvenirs and their cigarettes...

Might be what some of your Christmases look like tomorrow, who knows? :-)

No one has really been able to prove it, but legend has that there was even a soccer game that broke out that day

***A British captain, Sir Edward Hulse wrote this: He said,

“It was absolutely astounding, and if I had seen it on a ... film I should have sworn that it was faked!"

Just unbelievable.

CHRISTMAS CHANGES EVERYTHING.

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Oddly enough I first became familiar with this story through a commercial from a British grocery store.... Sainsbury’s.

I guess every year around Christmas they feature a very highly produced advertisement and in 2014 to commemorate the 100 year anniversary, they focused on the truce of 1914.

And, of course, the commercial ends with that year’s slogan for the store.

And I watched the whole thing… it will bring tears to your eyes… it’s about a 3 and a half minute video that went viral on YouTube that year…

And then I had the biggest let down at the end.

The best they could do for a slogan was “Christmas is for sharing.”

OK, YES Christmas is for sharing... when you’re a grocery store and you want people to buy more stuff.

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But if you're a human being... the theme of this story is that CHRISTMAS CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING.

The Christmas Truce of 1914 might be a glimpse into the best of our humanity… and isn’t it interesting that it is based on this holiday that celebrates the arrival of THE BEST OF OUR HUMANITY?

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The temple is leaking… and building to a river and it’s giving life.

A baby is born… and it is God in the flesh… because He desires to be with us.

Wars can literally stop… because in the middle of violence a shared humanity can be acknowledged.

CHRISTMAS CHANGES EVERYTHING.

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There’s another reason that the idea of “God being with us” maybe doesn’t seem like the big deal that it should.

Because we forget.

You forget.

I forget.

God cannot be contained in a temple or an ark or whatever… it springs a leak and brings life...

And we forget.

Do you know what happened on Dec. 26, 1914. They went back to shooting each other.

Do you know what’s going to happen in 2023?

In about a week we’re going to roll over into a new year and a few of us may make some really good changes… for a few weeks.

But I would wager that your February ‘23 is going to look a lot like your February ‘22.

We forget!

***Sainsbury’s… a British Grocery store made a beautiful short film about the Christmas Truce for their 2014 commercial.

Do you know what their big production for 2015 was?

***A commercial about a pet who destroys the Christmas decorations!

SERIOUSLY?!

In 2014 they basically made a short film that probably won contests… and the next year it’s a CAT that destroys the Christmas tree.

Now, Corky, we both know a dog would never do this right? :-)

But

CHRISTMAS CHANGES EVERYTHING… AND WE FORGET!

Our experience with God changes… how we measure time itself changes… dead things come back to life… and we… forget.

We forget that God is with us.

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This may come as no surprise to anyone here… but I drink more than one cup of coffee these days.

Let me tell you when I went from 1 cup to 2 cups a day.

It was just over 9 years when something happened in our lives that changed everything.

Allie and I realized that now we were responsible for keeping a human being alive.

Talk about terrifying.

And as much extra energy as I needed to plan a Christmas program… that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to those sleepless nights and midnight feedings that Allison had to go through.

Here’s the point… Zoe changed everything… and… WAIT… Zoe changed us.

I am a different person… I’m a different man than I was 9 years ago...

Allie is a different person than she was 9 years ago.

My parents are here tonight… they are different people. I remember them being mean and strict with me and my sister… and now I see them with my daughter… I don’t even know who those people are anymore.

Here’s my question…

CHRISTMAS CHANGES EVERYTHING. BUT ARE YOU GOING TO LET IT CHANGE YOU?

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It is Christmas Eve… I told you we’d get into the Christmas story… here it is.

Christmas DOES change everything… but every character we see in the story ALSO lets Christmas change them.

A man named Zechariah is in the story… and he is a priest just going through the motions… and he becomes a man of true faith.

His wife Elizabeth… also becomes miraculously pregnant and is filled with gratitude and worship.

Joseph becomes this man of extraordinary character by not leaving a girl who was pregnant with a child that wasn’t his.

The shepherds go from the smelly, bottom rung of society to the heralds of the King.

As Nick mentioned a few weeks ago… some pagan sorcerers that we’ve come to know as the wise men bowed down and worshipped a true King that was not theirs… and they even traveled home a different way to keep him safe.

Oh and let’s not forget Mary… the central figure in all of this outside of Jesus Himself. Probably a terrified teenager knowing what an unwed pregnancy might mean for her in that culture. Knowing that any “normal” plans she had for herself would never be the same.

Not only is she grateful to serve God… she writes a song about it.

CHRISTMAS CHANGES EVERYTHING, A GOD WHO IS WITH US CHANGES EVERYTHING… WILL YOU LET IT CHANGE YOU?

WE

Church… the temple is leaking.

And God’s presence is bringing things to life.

And it’s actually Jesus Himself who finishes Ezekiel’s story.

He says,

John 7:38 (NIV)

38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

Ezekiel watches the temple spring a leak… he watches a stream form… then a river… then it empties and brings life to everything they thought was dead.

But JESUS… Jesus says that WE are now rivers of living water.

CHRISTMAS CHANGES EVERYTHING. WILL YOU LET IT CHANGE YOU?

What if the church starting leaking out God’s presence???

What if WE became the streams of living water???

What if the things we thought were dead could come back to life???

WHAT IF CHRISTMAS CHANGED EVERYTHING WE THOUGHT WE KNEW ABOUT GOD AND EVERYTHING WE THOUGHT WE KNEW ABOUT OURSELVES.

AND WHAT IF WE HAD A GOD WHO WAS WITH US THE WHOLE WAY???

God cannot be contained. God WON’T be contained… and if we don’t jump in… this life-giving mission, this river will STILL happen.

Because the temple IS LEAKING.

But thankfully, Georgianna is CRUSHING it.

And I don't want to make our maintenance guy Dave nervous here, but Georgianna is leaking all over the place.

The Spirit of God refuses to be contained and our leaks are becoming ankle deep and knee deep streams and and they’re becoming rivers bringing new LIFE.

YOU are involved in bring new life to things people may have thought were dead!

Get this: to date… in 2022 alone… you were a part of giving away over $770,000.

But wait… that was without the Simple Christmas… so we know that number over $100,000 more now!

And this is just money. This doesn't include the countless man hours that have been invested... the countless prayers and worship services offered up... the TEMPLE IS LEAKING!

No, no… God’s presence is gushing out of Georgianna. And we can be part of the river of living water.

AND THIS CHANGING EVERYTHING. AND THIS CHANGES US.

OUTRO

His name is Emmanuel… which means “God With Us.”

And if there was ever a time where we needed God to be WITH us… it is now.

Go to Isaiah 9 as we wrap things up.

You remember Isaiah… the guy who was terrified, who was RUINED in the presence of God and some wild looking angels.

Just a few chapters later it seems like he begins to get it.

It IS awe-inspiring and breathtaking and even a bit nerve-racking to experience the presence of an Almighty God.

But IT CHANGES EVERYTHING.

Isaiah 9:2 (NIV)

2 The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of deep darkness

a light has dawned.

Isaiah 9:6–7 (NIV)

6 For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the greatness of his government and peace

there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne

and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

with justice and righteousness

from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

will accomplish this.

As we wrap things up tonight… and as you are preparing for what might be a busy day tomorrow… I’ve asked the band to give you a little time to reflect.

They’re going to play a song that you probably haven’t heard before… so there’s no need to stand and sing.

But just take a minute… read along with the words. THIS IS ABOUT A GOD WHO WANTS TO BE WITH YOU… A GOD WHO IS CHASING YOU ALL THE WAY DOWN TO EARTH.

AND THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING… AND THIS CAN CHANGE YOU.

MERRY CHRISTMAS GEORGIANNA.