The Unexpected Gift - Communion - Candle Lighting

WORSHIP

Emmanuel

Noel

ANNOUNCEMENTS

[Amber]

Welcome

Good evening, and welcome to this Christmas Eve candlelight service. Whether this is your first time with us or this is your church home, we are glad you are here.

Tonight, we pause in the middle of a busy world to remember a holy night—when God stepped into human history, not with force or fear, but as a child. We gather to celebrate that God is with us.

Let us worship together.

KIDS PROGRAM

Skit - Christmas Story - Luke 2:1-14

Song - Away in a Manger

Song - Joy (Northpointe Kids)

SERMON

[Ryan]

WELCOME

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson, and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us This Christmas Eve.

‌Welcome to those joining us online. We hope you're doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

And a special welcome to those joining us for the first time. We’re so glad you chose to be here.

ME/INTRO - Tension

We all have EXPECTATIONS.

As we approach Christmas, I know, at least for my family, there are lots of EXPECTATIONS about tomorrow

Everyone expects the traditions we’ve developed over the years to be maintained

Fancy Breakfast

Read the Christmas Story

Open gifts - over video call with extended family

4 Gifts - Wants, Need, Wear, Read

Big Christmas Meal - no ham

I’ve already disappointed the kids with my EXPECTATIONS this year.

With the warmer weather, I asked the kids if they would run with me, like we do every Thanksgiving.

They quickly said “no” that’s not what we do on Christmas, only Thanksgiving

But, we have EXPECTATIONS about all kinds of things, not just holidays.

I expect my roof to keep the water out of my house when it rains

I expect my furnace to keep the house warm enough to keep me from freezing to death in my sleep

I expect my car to start and get me to where I need to go

But we also have EXPECTATIONS about people

I expect everyone to be honest

I expect people to refrain from talking behind my back

I expect my friends to be there when I’m struggling

But we all know what many of our EXPECTATIONS are not met

Traditions change

People let us down

Things break

Things that we were absolutely sure would happen, don’t

WE - Tension

What EXPECTATIONS do you have this Christmas season?

What EXPECTATIONS do you have for the people in your life?

What EXPECTATIONS do you have for the organizations your affiliated with?

What EXPECTATIONS do you have for the church? for God?

Christmas is a time when we all have lots of EXPECTATIONS about lots of different things.

What do we do when those EXPECTATIONS don’t become reality?

Which I know for a lot of kids who have big gift EXPECTATIONS may have to figure that out tomorrow.

GOD - Text

The Bible is also full of people who had EXPECTATIONS about what they were convinced SHOULD happen

One of my favorite is the story about EXPECTATIONS is of King David.

A quick background to his story starts in 1 Samuel 8.

In 1 Samuel 8 Israel isn’t happy with the governmental system that God setup for them. Instead of letting God lead and direct them as their king with prophets relaying God’s messages to the people, they EXPECTATED God would let them be like all other nations with a human king.

In 1 Samuel 9 God gives them what they want, having His prophet Samuel anoint a man named Saul to be their first king. God gave them exactly what they wanted, Saul met all of their EXPECTATIONS. In 1 Samuel 9:2 Saul was described as a handsome man, a head taller than everyone else.

From 1 Samuel 10-14, Saul becomes king and does okay for a while, but eventually does everything God warned the people a king would do. He stopped following God and starts doing what he thought was right.

By 1 Samuel 15 God rejects Saul as king of Israel and...

In 1 Samuel 16 God anoints a new king, David. But David didn’t meet anyone’s EXPECTATIONS of a king. When the Prophet Samuel went to David’s father’s household (as God directed), David’s dad Jesse didn’t even have David show up to meet Samuel. David was the youngest of the 8 sons in his family, and his dad left him out in the field tending to the sheep while Samuel met with the other seven brothers discerning who God wanted to be the next King of Israel.

None of them were chosen, even though they all met human EXPECTATIONS for a king.

God reminded Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7

1 Samuel 16:7 NIV

7b The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Samuel asked if there were any other brothers, and David was finally called in from the fields.

David didn’t meet any EXPECTATIONS of what a king should be. Yet he was chosen by God, because David had a heart that aligned with God’s, and a desire to do God’s will before all else.

But...David continued to fall short of EXPECTATIONS.

In the next chapter, 1 Samuel 17, Jesse (David’s dad sent three of his sons off to battle, but doesn’t send David. David was kept back to tend sheep and take daily provisions to his brothers.

On one such trip to bring grain and bread to his brothers, David overhead a 9 foot tall Giant from the enemy’s camp shouting defiantly against Israel and God.

David didn’t take lightly to anyone cursing God or God’s armies and volunteered to fight him, as everyone else (including King Saul) was too scared.

In 1 Samuel 17:28, EXPECTING David to be incapable of helping, his brother questioned his motives, calling him conceited and wicked, and accusing him of coming only to be entertained by fighting.

David didn’t let his brother’s comments deter him. He was taken to King Saul and after telling the King that he had killed a LION and a BEAR he was allowed to fight the giant Goliath. But as any other soldier he was EXPECTED to fight wearing armor. Being a shepherd, David wasn’t used to armor, so he took it off. He declined the EXPECTED armor and choose to fight with what he knew, a sling and a stone.

David knew that God would help him. David knew that anyone who blasphemes the name of God should be stoned according to the Old Testament Law. So instead of choosing the weapons every EXPECTED (swords and spears) David choose weapons made by God (leather, and stones). So even David’s choice of weapons, whereas it didn’t meet everyone’s EXPECTATIONS, it did aligned with the punishment outlined in the Torah (the Israelite books of the law).

David won the battle, killed Goliath, and saved Israel. But nobody EXPECTED he would be able to do it.

What I have always been uneasy with, when hearing this story preached is that the big moral lesson is always,

So, go out, and be David, have courage when facing the giants in your life, no matter what others tell you, because God will be on your side and help you be victorious.

But, the reality is, I think I’m more like the Israelite army cowering in fear than David, standing bravely against the giants of my life.

YOU - Takeaway

Anyone else feel like this?

You read a story like David and Goliath and then think, good for him, I’d be on the sideline.

No armor, no weapons, nothing but a strap of leather and a stone - not for me.

Anyone had times in their lives when the EXPECTATIONS of everything going on feels crushing and you don’t know how to get out from under it?

Anyone try to fight their own battles, against some part of you that you want to change

anger

lust

addiction

jealousy

bitterness

shame

fear

you fill in the blank

and no matter how much you try, you make no lasting headway?

The truth is, we are more like the Israelite army than David.

We weren’t meant to fight our own battles.

The Old Testament gave Israel 613 laws to follow, and they broke them all.

The laws in the Old Testament were designed to show Israel that they can’t be good enough, they can’t win their own battles, they need a savior.

They need someone to fight their battles for them.

WE / JESUS - Redemptive Close - Call to Action

And this leads to one of, what I think, is the biggest incorrect EXPECTATION about the bible.

I was raised, and maybe you were raised to believe that the purpose of the bible is to prepare us for the moment we die.

This is what I was taught.

[Picture: Heaven - Earth - Hell (1)]

I grew up being taught that on earth, I need to believe the right things, and follow the right rules SO THAT when I die and meet St Peter at the Pearly Gates, I am allowed to go into HEAVEN instead of being sent to HELL.

The EXPECTATION that I grew up with, and maybe you too, was that as long as I said a prayer acknowledging Jesus as my LORD and SAVIOR, what happened in my life on earth, really didn’t matter. I just needed to check the right boxes while here on EARTH to make sure that I was allowed to go in the HEAVENLY direction at the post-death fork in the road.

Unfortunately, that is not the picture the bible paints.

The bible does say a little about what happens after you die, but the vast majority of what the bible says is focused on what happens to us here on earth.

Turn with me to Mark 1, page 812 in the sanctuary bibles

It is here in Mark that Jesus tells us exactly what the entire bible is about.

Mark 1:1 NIV

1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,

This “GOOD NEWS” is what the entire Bible is about. The main messages the bible is trying to communicate.

Continuing on to Verse 2, Mark goes back to the Old Testament showing the connection and the consistency between the Old and New Testaments.

Mark 1:2–3 NIV

2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— 3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”

According to the bible the “good news” Mark talked about in Verse 1 links to the Old Testament, the story of Israel (God’s people) that is already happening. The good news is that God is going to send Jesus as the culmination of Israel’s story and a fulfillment of a promise to come and rescue His people.

And that is Jesus mission...to come and rescue His people...us

Going a few verses ahead

Mark 1:14–15 NIV

14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

To Jesus, the GOOD NEWS of the bible was not that we get to go somewhere else when we die, but it is about God coming here to Earth. God’s Kingdom has come near.

The story I grew up learning was a ME CENTERED story. It was all about me believing and acting correctly to get my ticket punched to HEAVEN when I died

The Gospels tell a GOD CENTERED story about what God is doing right here on earth through Jesus

The Story the Bible tells can be summed up like this.

Genesis 1:1 NIV

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Notice it doesn’t say, “God created Heaven, Earth, and Hell” like in our original timeline.

Genesis 2:8 NIV

8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.

And in this garden God and Man lived together. Heaven and Earth were one. Everything was as God created it to be.

Genesis 3:8 NIV

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

In the beginning Heaven and Earth looked like this.

[Picture: Heaven - Earth - Hell (2)]

But humanity couldn’t keep God’s only rule.

Genesis3:2 says

Genesis 2:16–17 NIV

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

But, they did exactly that, they ate the apple.

Genesis 3:6 NIV

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Humanity wanted autonomy from God and His rules. Because they chose to act against God, Sin entered the world and they had to leave the garden, splitting Heaven and Earth

[Picture: Heaven - Earth - Hell (3)]

Hell is a consequence of the sinful decision humanity made to live separate from God

Genesis 3:16-19, lists the consequences of the Sin that humanity brought to Earth

Genesis 3:16–19 NIV

16 To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” 17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Humanity brought Hell to Earth

[Picture: Heaven - Earth - Hell (4)]

The Story of the Bible is God working to

heal the world

get the sin / hell out of it

and bring heaven and earth back together again

The Old Testament had a sacrificial system, whereby through the sacrifice of animals a clean “sin free” space could be created in the temple and humanity could be in God’s presence again

Exodus 29:42–43 NIV

42 “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the Lord. There I will meet you and speak to you; 43 there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory.

[Picture: Heaven - Earth - Hell (5)]

But the sacrificial system was flawed. It required an endless amount of sacrifices and never completely did away with the sin problem on earth.

The New Testament tells the story of Jesus, coming to earth, sinless to “dwell” or “tabernacle” among us. Jesus is the temple, the place where heaven and earth overlap.

John 1:14 NIV

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

[Picture: Heaven - Earth - Hell (6)]

The word used here for dwelling, is the same word as the Old Testament Tabernacle. Essentially, Jesus Tabernacles among us.

And because Jesus is the sinless son of God, Jesus mission while He Tabernacles with us on earth was to create pockets of heaven all over, where things are exactly as God created them to be, and people can be in God’s presence.

Jesus does this by saving us from the sins that we can’t save ourselves from.

Jesus wants to get the rid of the hell / evil / sin from your lives.

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 NIV

16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

We all agree things are bad on earth

Exploiting people is wrong

So we want to eliminate child trafficking from earth

Jesus takes it a step farther and wants to eliminate lust

Racism is wrong

So we want to make sure that everyone is treated fairly

Jesus takes it one step further and wants to eliminate pride, anger, and rage

Jesus is the great physician, coming to earth to surgically remove the sin / evil / hell from our lives so that

we can live a sin free life

we can be filled with the Holy Spirit

We can be the temple of God

We can join Him in His mission to bring heaven to earth now

We can live the lives we were created to live

But we have to choose to accept Jesus as our savior, and allow Him to do the work to remove the sin / hell from our lives.

God’s final plan for earth is to realign it with Heaven.

Revelation 21:1–4 NIV

1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

[Picture: Heaven - Earth - Hell (7)]

In the end, as CS Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, “Hell is the greatest monument to human freedom”

For those that refuse to allow God to heal them, God will honor their decision

BUT...God will not continue to allow Hell and Sin to ruin His creation forever

The truth is we are the Israelite army, cowing in the background.

Jesus is David, fighting the giants of our lives on our behalf.

Jesus is our savior, removing the sin / hell from our lives.

We need Jesus in our lives to fight the battles we all face again the sin and hellish conditions of this world.

We’re not living our lives on earth just to check boxes, and get into heaven when we die.

We have to make the decision to accept the saving / healing power of Jesus into our lives now so that

we can be healed

we can receive a NEW LIFE

we can be the temple of God, filled with God’s Holy Spirit

we can experience the LOVE OF JESUS and reflect that love to those that desperately need it

we can join Jesus in bringing Heaven to earth now

This Christmas, when God chose to literally send His son Jesus from Heaven to Earth, are you going to acknowledge that you are not the hero of the story, and accept the gift of healing and a new life that Jesus freely offers.

Let this Christmas be the Christmas that you started a relationship with Jesus and allowed Him to change your life.

PRAYER 

Will you join me in prayer...

COMMUNION + LINDSAY PLAY

[Ryan + Andrea / Justyn + Christopher]

It is at this time that we will observe the sacrament of communion.

We observe communion to remember everything Christ has done for us, how He loved us so much that He stepped down from heaven, become one of us, suffered everything the world could throw at him, yet did not sin, chose to die on the cross, taking the consequences of our sin upon himself, and by rising from the dead on the 3rd day, giving us hope for a new life now and in eternity with Him in heaven.

We take bread to remember that Christ allowed His body to be broken for us.

We take wine (or grape juice) to remember that Christ allowed His blood to be spilled for us.

As part of the Wesleyan denomination we practice an open table. You don’t have be a member of the Wesleyan church to partake in communion here. You just have to have accepted Jesus as you LORD and savior, earnestly repent of your sin, and empowered by the Holy Spirit do everything you can to follow the commandments of God.

Children may partake at the discretion of their parents.

I encourage you to Come up to the steps first. Pray. Ask for God to show you the next step He’s inviting you to take. Fill out one of these cards so we can pray for you and support you as you walk this new path.

Take some time during the next song, examine where you heart is at and pray for God to show you any areas in your life that you need to repent of.

CANDLE LIGHTING + SONG 

[Ryan]

Worship Team plays “Silent Night”

We remember the words of Jesus in John 8:12

John 8:12 NIV

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

We light the Christ candle as a sign of the God’s gift to all of us that day more than 2,000 years ago. God gave His one and only son, not as a Conquering King, as a humble baby. A humble baby that grew up, lived a sinless life, became the perfect sacrifice, bringing the Kingdom of God to Earth now, and as the light of the world driving Hell from the earth, and driving the Hell out of us. Today we pray that we may be people who seek and follow the example of the Christ child here and now sharing His light with a world that still desperately needs it.

In a moment, we will share the light of Christ by lighting our candles. The light will be passed from person to person, reminding us that Christ’s light is not diminished when it is shared—it grows brighter.

Please keep your candle upright, and once lit, gently pass the flame to the next person. Parents, please assist children.

God, as we hold these candles, we offer ourselves anew to You. May Your light shine in our lives—in our homes, our workplaces, and our community. Help us to live as people of hope, peace, joy, and love.

Amen.

BENEDICTION

[Ryan]

Thank you for joining us tonight to Celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus.

If you want the light of Jesus to shine in your life.

If you want the healing power of Jesus to fight your battles against sin and the hellish situations of this life

If you want to experience a peace that surpasses all understanding

Come up front and talk to me. I’d love to talk with you.

If this is your first time, we’re so glad you come.

This Sunday we have a special “end of year” message and starting in January we’re starting a brand new series exploring who God is and Who He is calling us to be titled “God is...”

We’d love for you to join us.

Services are right here every Sunday at 10 AM with a light breakfast available in the cafe at 9:30 AM.

Now...

May the light of Christ guide your path.

May the peace of Christ guard your heart.

May the love of Christ dwell in you richly.

Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord.

Amen.

DISCIPLESHIP QUESTIONS (download into APP)

What expectations do you have for Christmas that might distract you from its true meaning?

How can we change our expectations of God this Christmas season?

How does the story of David and Goliath relate to challenges you face in your life?

What battles in your life do you feel are too great to handle on your own?

In what ways can we prepare our hearts to receive Jesus' healing this Christmas?

What areas of our lives do we need to surrender to Jesus in order to experience His saving power?

What does it mean for you to accept Jesus as your Savior in a tangible way this Christmas?

How can we share the light of Christ with others in our community after this service?

In what ways can you reflect the love of Jesus to your friends during the holiday season?

How can you be a light in the darkness for those around you this Christmas?