Christmas Eve 2020

Christmas Eve Service 2020 Jamey Mills

Welcome to Northside, we are so glad you're here and that we get to spend out Christmas Eve celebrating with you all. My name is Jamey Mills, I am the lead pastor here at Northside. We are a newer church right here in NA that meets right here at OGE when pandemics aren’t a thing.

I have two amazing pieces of news for you this evening… life changing… you’ll be so glad you came kinds of news and I’m gonna give you one of them right now….

IN just 7 days… one week… 2020 will be over. I actually expected a standing ovation right there…

There is a huge part of me that’s excited for that, but at the same time… a part of me that isn’t.

Truthfully, I want to be the kind of person that sees the joy even in the struggle… that learns the lessons that are often only found in the hard times… lessons about gratitude and the value of relationships. Lessons on prayer and on what really matters. Lessons on what it is I really need… and what it means to consider doing things we don’t want to do for the good of others…. To be clear that is something Jesus taught.

If there was one word to describe 2020, what word would you use?

For me it's this… UNREAL

It’s crazy to think that just one year ago, Northside celebrated our very first Christmas Eve… and if someone would have said... Hey get ready here is what’s coming in 2020… would you have believed it? It’s been unreal.

It got me to thinking about that song… the 12 days of Christmas… and what it might be like if that song was written today…

Something like… ON the 12 days of covid my masked and socially distant true love sanitized and gave to me…

12… massive racial tension

11… school online

10 months of lockdowns

9 hording TP

8 rashes from masks

7.5 billion medical experts

6 killer hornets

5 major wildfires…

4 iratable staff members

3 covid tests… brain swabs

2 presidential candidates… and that's all I better say about that..

And one… in a year like 2020… what would you do with one.

In a year that's full of change… anxiety… of questioning what it is we can really buy into… and believe

And there are several passages that give me confidence… some of them talk about how it was God who hung the moon and stars in their place… that gave the oceans their boundaries, gave order to creation, placed the mountains and caused the valleys… even ours.

It reminds me of the passage

Romans 1:20 (NLT)

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

The evidence of God… is everywhere. Even in the midst of all the craziness… right in the middle of the anxiety… the reality of God is literally… right in front of your face. In the unspeakable consistency and predictability of every sun rise… in every sun set… in the eyes of your kids… in the wind that blows… your heart that beats… from mountains all the way to the depths of the sea.

The one thing… the one thing in 2020… the real hope, real peace, real value and real meaning… is not a candidate… it's not a vaccine… it's not a lockdown… it’s simply JESUS. The ONE thing… that is bigger and more important than EVERY other thing on any other day… in 2020… and in every other year.

Matthew 1:18–23 (NLT)

18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: (Isaiah 7:14)

23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!

She will give birth to a son,

and they will call him Immanuel,

which means ‘God is with us.’ ”

Immanuel… God with us. Not near us… not aware of us… but God with us. The #1 most repeated promise the Bible is right there.

And not just a good man or a good teacher… not that a prophet is with us… but that God… himself… is with us.

This passage in Matthew is a direct quote from a passage in Isaiah 7:14… no less than 700 years before what it is we celebrate tonight… the birth of Jesus. God prepared people… through Isaiah… saying here is a sign… another sign to the reality of who He is. Another sign… as to the promise… the amazing promise we celebrate on Christmas eve… of God’s great love… and amazing grace… and… that He is with us. HE IS WITH US. HE IS WITH YOU.

2020 has been unreal… and unfortunately… that is how far too many treat Jesus. Jesus… and the story of His birth… it’s not some cute tradition… a feel good story for the holidays… It is and has been the most contentious issue one the face of the earth. Something happened… 2000+ years ago that led us here tonight… to this conversation.

Unreal… I get it. It's hard to fathom… but then again that's what you’d have said about 2020 too. I cannot help but wonder

What would life look like if we began to treat the nativity as more than a story? If hope was more than a stocking? If Christmas was more than a service?

what life would look like if we began to live as if the nativity was more than a story… if hope was more than a stocking… If christmas was more than a service… and if our lives really began to reflect that one thing that is bigger than anything 2020 has to offer… or… 2021 for that matter… Emmanuel… GOD WITH US.

That is my prayer for you… each and every one of us. That tonight we’d be reminded of the one thing… that never changes… and that is greater than them all. Emmanuel… God with us.

I'm going to ask the worship team to come back up. Tonight we are going to have a candle lighting… some of my friends are going to come up… and they will make their way around… how it will work is that they will light one candle… of an adult in each group and then you can pass it along to those in your group. After the song, I am going to ask you to blow out your candles…because of what’s after that… so… please do that.

The candle is such an excellent reminder of what we talked about tonight… that he is the light that burns in the dark… that shows us the reality of it all. He is the light of the world… where real hope is found…

Matthew 4:16 (NLT)

16 the people who sat in darkness

have seen a great light.

And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow,

a light has shined.”

I’d love to ask you to think about this as we sing… is that light of Jesus… a reality in me… do I live as if he's real… do I honor Him as if He is the one thing?

Is the light of Jesus a reality in me?

There are a ton of things that are unreal in the world we live in… He… he is not one of them.

And as we light them… Matt will lead us in a song.