Merry Christmas. Wow, you know, how many years
have you sat in services like this somewhere on the planet and
heard those old songs? And they never lose their
impact, do they? Their their history written in
lyrics and music that we can sing and reminisce and think
about it from the time we were probably smallest and youngest
to the time that we are at right now in our age process.
And it's interesting how you have different emotions at
Christmas time based on how long you've been around and what
you've been through in this life thus far.
If you're a little kid, everything is super exciting and
positive and wonderful and magical, and it should be that
way. I'd love to be able to go back
to those days again, just for a little while.
But I love watching children and grandchildren and you guys, your
kids, everybody experience Christmas to the the fullest way
that they possibly can. And then we have people that are
in times of trials and difficulty transition, whether
it's issues of losing a loved one, We have some of our
families in our church this year who lost precious loved ones
that are with Jesus now. And that's hard to have your
first Christmas, isn't it without your your mom or your
dad or your grandparents or your kids or whatever people who have
passed on. It's, it's just not quite the
same. People have health issues.
Many people have health issues, people have marital issues, they
have kids issues, they have financial issues, they have all
kind of issues, right? If you have a chance to talk to
people with with an open heart and they know you're open and
you're interested in their lives and what they maybe you're
dealing with, they'll usually tell you a little bit about what
they're dealing with. And Cindy, this week, my wife,
she's dealing with a lot of health issues at one time.
It's like, it's almost like a domino thing in our home right
now. But the Lord is with us.
Help us get through with it. The visiting nurse was there
this week and she was talking to Cindy and Cindy could tell that
she was really burdened about something, but she wasn't going
to, you know, violate her privacy sense of privacy.
But the Holy Spirit was put on Cindy to ask her, you know, what
she was dealing with And she said she was going through a
terrible divorce, very, very painful woman, about 28 years
old, eight-year old child son didn't know how to process that
with him at this time of year. And so Cindy listened to her
and, and, and meanwhile, Cindy is like an agony.
I, I could tell you more about that, but I'm not going to bore
you with the details. This pray for her.
But Cindy had the heart to say, well, could I say a prayer for
you? And so she did.
And that's really what Christmas is about.
It's about us somehow becoming a little bit more like Jesus,
where we care about others more than we think about ourselves.
Jesus, when we study his life, he was 100% focused on you,
never himself. And even as Christians, on our
best day, it's really hard to be 100% focus on someone else,
isn't it? When you have your own
challenges, your own issues. But when the Holy Spirit comes
into our life, when we become believers and we trust in Jesus
as our Lord and Savior, which I trust all of you have done.
And if you haven't, the greatest Christmas present you could ever
experience is to have Christ come into your heart and reveal
His love for you and His forgiveness to you and give you
the promise of everlasting life. That's the best.
Doesn't get any better than that.
Jesus is the reason of the season, isn't it?
Isn't he? And everything else is some
somewhat superficial to some extent.
So I want to read some history here tonight.
Some of you are familiar with this, maybe some of you have
never heard these verses from the book of Luke, but it talks
about the virgin birth, Christ being born through a Virgin Mary
and no sex, no man involved, just a miraculous birth God
becoming man in the person of Jesus Christ, fully God and
fully man. And one of the things I was
thinking about is I was reading this and maybe you thought about
it. When Jesus is a baby, he's, he's
fully God, right? Was he aware?
OK, temporarily, I'm a baby right now.
When I'm 33 years from now, I'm going to be a full man and I'm
going to die on the cross. This is why I've come to save my
people from their sin. Be fascinating to to know all
those details. Someday.
I think we will when we're with him in heaven.
But he never left his Godhead, even when he was an infant, when
he was a baby. And we know he was age 12 in the
synagogue and he was doing deep conversations theologically with
the the religious leaders at the time.
And his mom and dad were freaking out because they
wondered where he was at. And he said, don't you know him
about my father's business? So we know even at age 12, he
was fully aware of the purpose for why he came.
But it says in verse 26 of Luke chapter 1.
Now in the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to
a city Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man
whose name was Joseph of the House of David.
The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the Angel
said to her, Rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with
you, Blessed are you among women.
But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and
considered what manner of greeting this was.
Then the Angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you
have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in
your womb, and bring forth the Son, and shall call his name
Jesus. He will be great, and he will be
called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will give him
the throne of his Father David, and he will reign over the House
of Jacob Forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.
Then Mary said to the Angel, How can this be, since I do not know
a man? And the Angel answered and said
to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of
the Highest will over shadow you.
Therefore also that holy One who is He be born will be called the
Son of God. And so a miracle, obviously.
And then it goes on to tell us in chapter 2 of Luke.
And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from
Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
This census first took place while Carinius was governing
Syria. So all went to be registered,
everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee
out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David,
which is called Bethlehem because he was the of the house
and lineage of David to be registered with Mary and be his
betrothed wife who was with child.
So it was that while they were there, the days were completed
for her to be delivered and she brought forth his, her first
born son and wrapped him in Swahili clothes and laid him in
a Manger because there was no room for them in the inn.
And now in the Christmas letter we sent out to everybody, we had
a insight in the fact that Jesus first experienced when he was
born was his vision being focused on pretty much his
mother's face, I'm sure. But also all he saw was
blackness, The Cave, the darkness of The Cave.
It wasn't any fancy hotel or residence or anything.
It was, it was a pretty tough place where animals hung out and
he would smell for the first time and he wouldn't smell
cookies baking in the oven or wonderful sense of dinner being
made or whatever. He was smelling the animal,
animal dung, which I'm sure was really gross, but nonetheless,
that's what he experienced. And he was not laying in a
comfortable bed or a crib or a bassinet.
He was laid in a bed of hay, which was prickly and I'm sure
jagging him and all that kind of stuff.
It wasn't like, like what we experience when we go to bed at
night, right? And so when you think about
everything like the trees, it's so fun and festive and the
presents are fun and the dinner and the party and the family and
all these things are awesome to experience, right?
But think about it. When Jesus was born, there was
nothing like this, nothing at all.
And we study the Bible and we don't see any evidence of any
kind of major celebration in December or any month in regard
to his birth. The focus was on his
resurrection and and Easter Pasca.
Whenever Christ after he died on the cross for your sins, he was
buried on the third day he rose again from the dead.
That is what we really celebrate.
Christ's birth is awesome because if he wasn't born then
there would be no death, burial, and resurrection.
But his focus was not on his birthday.
His focus was on his resurrection day.
And that's what makes our faith and our Christian heritage
different than every other religion in the world.
We worship King Jesus, a risen savior.
We worship not a man, but a God. Man fully, man fully, God
perfect, never sin, Jesus Christ our Lord.
And so the glory of what happened that night was after
this occurred, and this birth occurred in the Manger.
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in
the fields, keeping watch over the flock by night.
Now to be a shepherd was a lowly occupation.
There was nothing glamorous about it.
It was cold, it was desolate. You were responsible for
protecting these animals. Many of them would be used as
sacrifices in the temple on behalf of the people's sins that
didn't realize that Jesus was the only one that could take
away sin. Animal sacrifices were still
occurring, but these guys are out there at night, I'm sure,
looking at the stars and doing whatever they do.
And all of a sudden they had this encounter, this miraculous
experience. At night as they were watching
the sheep, a behold, an Angel of the Lord stood before them, and
the glory of the Lord shone around them.
And they were greatly afraid, I should say, so I'd be afraid
too, wouldn't you? Then the Angel said to them, do
not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which will be to all people.
Now this is the good news. You and I have good news to tell
people about what Jesus Christ did for us and what He can do
for them if they humble themselves and repent and admit
they're sinners and that they need a Savior.
It's that simple. It's good news.
Not any is a good news for the fact that He is a risen Savior,
but it's good news because He takes away all your sin, His
blood cleanses it, and He gives you a brand new life and a
future that will be with him for all eternity in heaven one day.
This is something we want to tell everybody, everybody we
know, everybody we love, everybody we come in contact
with. We want to know if they have
ever heard any good news. There's so much bad news now,
isn't there? I mean, people get paid millions
of dollars to give you and me bad news on the major news
networks, right? I mean, it's, it's madding,
people being killed, shot, terrible things happening.
I mean, we don't need any of that stuff, right?
We need good news, right? And that's why it tells us some
Philippians sync on these things, not negative things,
sync on things that are pure, lovely, just and a good report.
You have a good report, don't you?
Jesus Christ is your Lord and your Savior and he forgave you
of your sin. Tell everybody you have a chance
what he's done for you. And so he's telling them, I'm
giving you good news here. For there is born to you this
day in the city of David a savior, not a baby.
He said a savior. I'm sure they thought like, what
does that mean? Who is Christ the Lord?
He named him. The Angel named him,
specifically Christ the Lord. And this will be assigned to
you. Go and you'll find a babe
wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a Manger.
And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the
heavenly host, praising God, saying, Glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.
So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven,
that the shepherd said to one another, Let us now go to
Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass which the
Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste, they
ran, they went as fast as they could to get there, and they
found Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying in a Manger.
Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying
which was told them concerning this child.
And all those who heard it marveled at those things which
were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things
and pondered them in her heart. And then the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had
heard and seen and was told to them.
Now I wonder about me and you. Tonight we've heard the story
every year of our life. If we've been Christians and
attending a Bible church, we know the Bible ourselves because
we've read it and we've studied it.
Are we making widely known that which was told them concerning
this child? Not a guilt trip, but an
opportunity maybe for all of us today and tonight, whoever we're
with, to tell people that don't know Jesus yet what he who he is
and what he's done for us and making it widely known.
I love the parable, the sewer or the picture of the artwork.
One of my favorite paintings, I have it by my bed and it's a
picture of Jesus with a smile on his face with a satchel over his
shoulder taking seed, which is representing the word of God.
And he doesn't take well. Like I think I'll put one seed
here in Greensburg. I'll put 3IN Latrobe, I'll put
five in there. Like he just took it and like
blitzed the ground with it. I mean, the ground was totally
covered with that seed. So much seed that Jesus threw
out to teach us that you don't throw it out in a sparse way.
You throw it out as aggressively as you can, wherever you can
throw it so that people have a chance to hear what Jesus has
done for you. Our country, our world is
fractured because there's a lack of seed being sown.
People don't have hope. They don't know what to believe
in. They don't know where to go
anymore. They're hopeless.
He's the God of all hope and the God of all comfort.
And so it's exciting for me, and I'm sure to you tonight as you
hear His word and you think about it.
Lord, I want my kids to know you.
I want my grandkids in there. I want my neighbors to know you.
I want the people I work with to know You.
Show me how to share the Word. Show me how to sow the seed.
Show me how to love people enough that I really, really
want to tell them what it's all about.
Don't let me be insecure or intimidated.
We're embarrassed. Help me care about people the
way you do. Everywhere Jesus went, He told
people who he was and the people that followed him the closest.
Learn how to do the same thing. Tell everyone what the Lord has
done for you because I think of the times that we're living in
right now. If everybody had a chance to
have open mic tonight, not karaoke, but open mic where we
could just tell everybody like, what are you dealing with?
What have you been through? What is it you need help with?
And what's your greatest prayer right now?
We would be here probably till tomorrow morning.
I'm sure there'll be that much information come on forth.
But when you think about your life and Cindy and I, we try to
pray in the morning as often as we can.
And usually the prayer in the morning is repentance.
Starting with repentance. Honey, I'm sorry how I treated
you. I'm sorry, Sorry how I didn't
have patience with you. I'm sorry how I criticize you.
I I'm, I'm sorry. You know, this is always Cindy
repenting, not me. I don't have to No, I'm just
kidding. It goes both ways.
But anyway, we, we start with that, right, So that our, our
hearts are pure and there's nothing against each other,
right. And then we reflect on the
goodness of God and how merciful and how patient he's been with
us and how the, the privilege we have to serve you guys at
Calvary Chapel and teach the word of God.
There's there's no greater calling as far as I'm concerned
as a man to have the chance to teach people the word of God.
And we have many men and women in this church and teach others
the word of God. And then we have intercession
and we pray for you guys as I know you pray for us and we can
see your faces and we know the story.
And Pastor Lewis and myself and George and John, we, we know the
heartache in the church. We know the people what they're
going through. And you guys are on our hearts
all the time because you're on Jesus heart all the time.
And we represent him and we carry you in our hearts and lift
you up to the Lord. And then we have a time of
gratitude, thanking God so much for all that he's done, more
than we deserve. And one of our biggest prayers
right now, we're asking Jesus to make us more like Jesus, just
not have knowledge in our head or information.
But how can we shine Jesus to other people?
As I said, there's heartache in the world, there's illness,
there's conflicts, family issues, children issues, aging
issues, loss of loved ones, marriage, finances, sin,
culture, the nation's everything.
We are in these last days and we're to look up for.
Our redemption draws nigh. I was a Giant Eagle this
afternoon for the fifth time in two days, I think.
I get there and I text Cindy, is there any you need?
No, we're good. You know, I'm thinking on I
don't believe it, but I come home, I'm out again today.
She's oh, we need baked beans. I got to get the baked beans
right? And these lines are like huge,
right? And I'm thinking like, come on,
why am I here? And I was tempted to cut in the
line and think of myself right, but I waited.
So I'm in line. This nice young fella is behind
me and we just started striking up a conversation.
He had quesadillas. His mom was making quesadillas
for, for a Christmas dinner. I thought the point.
That's interesting. That's a change.
So we were talking and, and then he began to tell me he had gone
to Hemfield for a while. And then he went to prep school
and he he went to prestigious education school.
He's studying economics. And I asked him what he wanted
to do and he said he wanted to get into real estate development
and all that. And I said, yeah, he says, what
industry are you in? I said, well, I I sell
eyeglasses to people from Spain. And I said, I'm also a pastor.
I always like to get that in there because that's what I
really want to talk about. He says, where are you a pastor
at? And I told him, he says, yeah,
we go to church. My parents are very spiritual
and we go to a very, very small church.
Not a whole lot of people there. I said, well, it's not a matter
of how many people that go to the church, it's whether they're
going to the church for the right reason, right.
And I said, it sounds like you have a very, very nice church.
And then he said, you know, he said, I've been thinking maybe
I'd like to be a pastor. And I said, boy, that's a
wonderful idea if that's what you sense God calling you do to
do. And I encourage him to pursue
that, right, because I said it will far fulfill you so much
more than any worldly success you'll get.
It's, it's good to have a career, It's good to be
successful, all that kind of stuff.
But it's it, it, it has a, a bottom there, there.
It's not limitless where you serve Jesus and you live for
him. There's no limit to the blessing
and the benefits you have when you have a chance to, to serve
and represent him. So we, we wish each other a
Merry Christmas. He, he went on his way and I
think as I, as I saw him there and had the chance to have that
providential meeting with him in regard to ministry calling, I
think like every second of our life, if we're tuned into the
Spirit of God, there's a reason and there's a purpose for
whatever you're going through and whatever you're
experiencing. There's no mistakes.
Everything that happens, good, bad, ugly, God's using it to, as
George said to me earlier tonight, to grind us down.
So we have no confidence in anything or anybody but Jesus
that we're nothing but a a pile of dust and there's not a lot
that holds us up or stabilizes us except for him.
Jesus, you may be here tonight and you've come to the service
because someone's dragged you here relative or something.
You might be here tonight because it's traditional.
You might be here tonight. That's because you love Jesus.
And that's, but I pray the real reason you're here tonight.
But you might feel overwhelmed tonight.
You might be stressed out. You might be fearing some things
in your life. You might have some anxieties
and you might be hopeless. Well, our prayer tonight for
those who are listening on Grace FM and those who are watching on
YouTube. And I'll see this later perhaps,
and maybe now that as you sit here and as we prepare to take
the Lord's Supper together, and we do that every time we gather
to remember really what it's all about.
And that's the Lord Jesus, knowing him, living for him,
following him, and letting him be your passion in this life.
There's an answer to life for the problems we all have.
Cindy and I were talking about that this morning.
Jesus tells us in Matthew that he says come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden. That means like just a ton of
stuff on you. You're overwhelmed.
You just can't take it another day.
You're just like done right. And Jesus says, come unto me and
take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is
light. He says right, and you're maybe
carrying a burden tonight and you're thinking there's no way
this is light and there's no way it is easy and He knows that.
But if you take whatever it is that's weighing you down and do
what He says, learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart, and
you will find rest for your soul.
It's all in Jesus, telling Him what it is you're struggling
with, telling Him what it is you can't handle, and telling Him
and asking Him to help you learn his life and how to trust Him
and how to follow Him. Once you tap into that, you'll
never need another self help book.
You'll never need another psychiatrist.
You'll never need another counselor.
Because He is the mighty counselor, He's the answer to
life and Jesus gift to you. This Christmas ISM is himself
and I think for a moment, God bless you.
What if he hadn't come? Where would we be tonight?
Maybe many of us would be dead in prison, sitting at an end of
a bar stool with the 30th drink, trying to get rid of our sorrows
and our worries, right? But we're here to commune with
him and the fellowship with one another.
So if you have your communion elements available there, I'm
going to read something before we take the communion because
this highlights really everything about the communion
from the book of Colossians chapter one.
It says that you may work, walk worthy of the Lord, fully
pleasing Him, being fruitful and every good work and increasing
in the knowledge of God. That's where you want to put
your focus. Strengthen with all might
according to His glorious power, not your power, but His power
for all patience and long-suffering with joy.
In spite of what Jesus went through, He always had joy,
right? And we need to experience that
joy and express that joy in the midst of all the challenges that
we all go through. Giving thanks to the Father who
has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints
in the light. He has delivered us from the
power of darkness. That's what the cross did.
When He died on the cross, He turned the light on full blast
and spoiled the powers and energy and abilities of the
devil and all the hell forces of darkness.
He delivered us from that power of darkness and conveyed us into
the Kingdom of His Son, the Son of His love, in whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all
creation. For by Him all things were
created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and
invisible, whether they're Thrones or dominions or
principalities or powers or UFOs.
It's not in there, but they're out there, right?
All things were created through Him and for Him, and He is
before all things, and in Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the
beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things He
may have the preeminence for it please the Father, that in Him
all the fullness should dwell. So if you're empty and you want
to be full, it's only going to happen if you're full of Jesus,
because He is the fullness. And by Him, to reconcile all
things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or
things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his
cross. And you who were once alienated
in enemies, and that's every one of us.
At one time we hated Jesus. We lived in a way that surely
didn't show that we could care less about His cross and what He
did. I was there at one time, you
were too. And yet in the midst of us being
enemies in our mind, and by wicked works, yet He's now
reconciled, means He's made peace with us, and with Him and
the body of His flesh through His death, to present you wholly
and blameless and above reproach in His sight.
So He did it all for you and me. And it doesn't get any better
than that, does it? I could go on for an hour and
put you all to sleep. I think you probably get it by
now. And if you don't get it, Lord
have mercy on you. Listen to it later and listen to
it again and again and again until it drills into your head
and you finally say, I get it now.
This is the best thing I've ever heard of in my life.
And I want to follow Jesus and live for him and tell other
people what he's done for me and what he can do for them too,
right? Amen.
God bless you guys. The worship team can come
forward now. They're going to have one last
song before we take off. And we wish everyone a wonderful
Merry Christmas. My brother Paul here.
Come here, brother. Give me a hug.
He just lost his mom here a couple weeks ago, and here he is
serving the Lord. He's not sitting home
complaining. He's a testimony.
My mother's here today, 92 years old.
It's a miracle she's here. We're having to throwback
Christmas down on our one. All the grandkids and the
relatives and everybody's going to be at her house to
celebrating her life and celebrate each other's life.
Be thankful for who's in your life.
Your children, your grandchildren, your wives, your
husband, your grandparents, your relatives, especially the one
that you don't want to sit beside at dinner.
Maybe you intensely sit beside them this year.
You know, I've sort of had an attitude against you.
Please forgive me. I want to tell you about Jesus.
I don't want to hear about that. That's all you want to talk
about. Well, I'm going to tell you
anyway. Jesus loves you, right?
Let's prepare our hearts for the supper.
Oh, Lord, our hearts are full tonight because of you being in
them. You are the King of kings and
the Lord of Lords. Lord Jesus, we're so thankful
that you came and you went through the human experience.
Never sin, never was hopeless, never gave up.
You kept doing what you did for us, every one of us that would
believe and trust in you that our worst places.
Lord, you came to us and told us the good news through someone,
through the word, through the radio TVA person that cared
enough about us that share the good news.
And when that happened that day that we heard it and understood
it and believed our life has never been the same again and
never will be. Thanks to you Lord.
Thank you for everyone you brought here tonight, every
family that's represented. Lord bless them and their
families abundantly, Those who are listening as well.
May this be a different kind of Christmas for all of us as we
sit around and watch one another, see the joy and the
happiness. May we enter into that
celebration of life, thanking you for what it is you've given
to each of us again for another day.
Thank you for the example that all these people are to us that
serve you here, their passion, their love, and their desire to
go deeper in you, Lord, no matter what, I pray, Lord, you
would give us strength in these days and increase our faith and
make us like you, Jesus. That's what you said you wanted
to do, to conform us to your image and likeness.
We're up for that Lord. We're into that Lord 100%.
Do what it is you want to do in us to make us like you.
We don't want to stay the way we are.
We want to be more and more like you Lord, so we can bless and
help people in this life. And the night that Jesus is
betrayed, he took the bread in his hands and he broke it and he
gave thanks and he said, take, eat.
This is My body which was given for you.
Eat this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner that evening
He took the cup, and he said, This cup is a new covenant in My
blood, which was shed for the forgiveness of sins of many.
Drink this in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this
bread and you drink this cup, you show forth the Lord's death
until he comes again. If anybody needs any special
prayer tonight as you're leaving, especially those of you
who have been through the loss of loved ones just recently,
grab one of the leaders here. We'll pray with you and be there
no matter how long you want to be here with us.
We're not in any hurry to leave. So thanks for coming out
tonight. Love you guys.
Have a wonderful Christmas. Merry Christmas.