Well, good morning Crossing Church.
How are you doing today? I really, I mean, is it?
Like, are you surviving like all the crazy nutty stuff that is
going on? I tell you what, you go to the
grocery store. It.
Yeah. It's survival, isn't it?
It's just nuts and it's just going to get none of your
nuttier until next weekend hits and I hope that you're surviving
and this is like a moment of sanity and a Moment of clarity
and what is the rest of your holiday season?
I want to Welcome, all of our locations joining from all over
this region. So thankful for each and
everyone of you and if you're inside her online we're thankful
for you as well. And how many of you are not done
shopping yet? Raise your hands just be honest
how many of you are all done? Well, you're a little better
than first service. You're actually, you're actually
doing a little bit better. Well, if you haven't gotten
everything that you need to get, I'll give you a couple of great
ideas. One is, I don't know a better
gift that you could give your spouse.
Then inviting them to come with you to a marriage Retreat.
We've had four of those, you've had about 120, people go through
them. It's been a great experience for
them and we have three scheduled for the spring and you can get
on that. QR code and go down through the
tree and see when those are. I think there's one the end of
February couple in March and that would be a great gift to
give each other because there's nothing better to invest in than
your marriage. So once you to consider that
coming up in the spring and in the winter of 2023 actually
Begins the day after Christmas, The Crossing is taking a group
to the Holy Land. Now, that's a little bit.
That's an expensive gift that you could give in there about,
we're about half filled up already.
So if you're considering that you can get more information,
you can do the same thing on the QR code and see what's up with
that because that is a singular experience.
So it's a life-changing experience and hope every one of
you gets to do that sometime in your life.
Well, we're in the series called the gift I need.
Read. And last time, to tackle this
before, all of the what, over 40 Christmas, Eve type services
that were having all across the region.
And we've been looking particularly at a scripture in
the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 9, which is a
prophetic scripture about the coming of the Messiah, the
coming of Jesus, and we're kind of going through these different
Options that he uses these different metaphors that he uses
to describe the coming Messiah and the one that I was assigned
was Everlasting father. So I've been thinking about that
in the last few weeks as I've been preparing to speak with you
about the idea of an everlasting father.
And and so it it you know, when I think about my father, I get a
nostalgic and you may you may as well depending upon them.
Mean it, evokes different kinds of emotions depending upon your
upbringing, your experience. For me, it was a reflection back
to October 21st 1999. Now, October 21st, is my
birthday. So you can write that down in
case you can have someone that you need to, you know, just so
be ready for next year. But October 21st, I was born in
59. So it was my 40th birthday.
And it's that birthday. You know, your 40th, birthday is
kind of that birthdays that birthday when you go.
I have just crested the hill. And now I'm going to be going
down the other side, you know, and people that are all younger
than me are going to be considering the old right.
Like I'm over the hill. Maybe, maybe you might even get,
so I don't know introspective that you might contemplate your
own mortality. That particular day, October
21st, 1999, I was contemplating mortality Just not my own.
Because that was the day that I buried my father.
What a 40th birthday. To be able to lay my father to
rest, was it made it a very, very difficult day.
And I remember going, I mean I was officiating.
So I had the privilege of officiating, my father's funeral
and my mother's funeral, My Brother's funeral, and so I'm
officiating. And so I'm wearing two hats,
right? I'm wearing the I'm the morning,
sun hat and I'm missing my father.
And then I'm also that person who's responsible that
everything runs smoothly in this service.
And I wanted to make sure that he was properly honored and I
remember after Going through the service and, you know, into the
dad's body into the hearse and then taking the Hurst, the other
side of Indianapolis to Washington Park Cemetery, where
my mother had been buried five years before in my my family not
me. If they would have listened to
me, they would have made a different choice, but my family
picked out the casket and they picked out an oak casket.
Now, those of you that are thinking about would know
something about Oak, what is it? It's heavy, it's heavy, and for
some reason, we chose six pallbearers instead of eight and
you really needed to have eight pallbearers for this.
And so, my job, my responsibility, when the hearse
arrives at the cemetery is I go to the back.
Of the of the hearse I stand there, the pallbearers line up
backwards. They and they, you know, they
bring out the casket and then I walk in front of the casket to
the burial site about, maybe 10 feet in front, and they follow
me to the, to the burial site. So, that's what I'm doing and
going forward and, you know, there's just some circumstances
I have to be aware of. Well, I happen to look back now
my At the time was toward the front of the casket as one of
the pallbearers and as I looked behind me, I could see something
happening that my brother's knees were buckling.
Because it was heavy. and he was going to lose it and I mean, I'm
thinking to myself, this will be horrible if that were to happen
and I figured out that day why they put handles on the ends of
the casket because all I needed to do was step back and put my
hand down on that onto that handle and lift up that handle
and I looked at my brother he looked at me and it was like
thank you thank you so much and I carried I helped carry Free my
father's body that the rest of the way to where he was set on
that part, that lowers the casket down.
And when I was doing that, there was something that occurred to
me. That all these years, those 40
years, my dad had carried the burden for me.
From the day, I was born. He carried the burden for me.
And here now I have the opportunity just for a moment to
return the favor and carry the burden with him.
And I have to tell you that, you know, I was blessed.
I was really blessed as a son to have a father, like, I had
because he bore the burden of his family and the burden that I
presented him with with so much grace.
I never heard. I can't tell you.
I'm I'm not lying. I don't think I ever heard.
My dad really raised his voice in anger, I can't remember him.
Ever swearing Not one off-color word out of his mouth, I can't
say either one of those things. But I could say those about him.
And that's pretty amazing. I'm not saying that he didn't
have his faults but I just didn't he didn't let me see
them. I never heard him, complain
about his responsibility, taking care of the family.
And with both of our parents gone.
By my mother five years before. And then my father, I remember
when we were walking back to our cars, after that little
committal ceremony was over looking at my brother and going
you realize we're orphans I never thought of that before the
idea that both of my, my parents were gone and you know how it
is, you know, matriarch and patriarch of the family.
And then all of a sudden, everything shifts, Everything
Changes, all sorts of things. And that I was going to have to
be the patriarch of my family now because that he had, he had
moved on now. Have to tell you, as grieving,
as I was, I wasn't grieving like other people who had no hope
because I knew something that my about my father's, see my father
gave me the greatest gift. Any father could ever give a son
any parent could ever give a child and that is the knowledge
of where he was spending eternity.
That changes everything. So I grieve but nothing not like
people who don't have any hope. Now, he was gone from us and he
was with the Lord. But what he left us with, was
priceless to me. Because I had received so much
from him, received his protection, his provision, his
financial investment, his emotional investment, his
spiritual investment. I mean, he was a key player in
me becoming a Christian. So I was kind of latching onto
my my mother and father's faith. I actually have a picture a Jack
and white picture that somebody I don't know who took it of me
in the waters of baptism with our pastor.
Baptizing me but my father got in the water.
Would that was something that was never done.
He got in the water in his Sunday suit and he's standing
there with his arms folded. Like you better do this right
man. You know, like I mean you can't
even see my face. You just see my feet?
You know, because I'm in the like the prone position.
You can see my socks and back then you were in our church.
You are actually baptized in the clothes you wore.
And and so it's kind of interesting that he gave me the
spiritual investment and he taught me and he trained me and
he gave me Grace and he gave me mercy, but most of all he gave
me love Now, by that time I was a father, I was a father four
times over and I was doing my best to instill the things that
my father had instilled in me into my children.
And I'm sure that I'm not. I don't live up to those
expectations, but I've trying and I try and and I reach
realizing something at by that time in my life at 40, is that
being a father is a lot more than just a biological reality.
That being a father is a responsibility.
And I was thinking about that word as I Was preparing to
preach today, the word responsibility because there's a
word inside of it and the word is side of the word.
Responsibility is the word response.
So when this baby is presented to you, how are you going to
respond to that? You know, it's more than a
biological reality because the response is, this is a big
responsibility. I don't know what this is going
to entail but this is a huge responsibility.
And my dad's response to that responsibility was great for me
and and hopefully it's continuing to live on in me and
then in my kids, I see it as they are now parents and I'm a
grandparent even though my father's been gone for 23 years
from this world. I see his legacy living on.
And I can tell you that even though he has been gone for 23
years, he'll always be my father.
Now, we've been in this book of Isaiah in the Old Testament,
Isaiah chapter 9. And when Isaiah is describing
the coming Messiah, he uses these really colorful metaphors.
Beautiful metaphors. I, I remember from when I was in
choir, and I was singing These in Handel's Messiah, because
there's a song in there. And his name Shall be Called
wonderful counselor. Hear that metaphor in their
Mighty God? Prince of Peace.
But then there's this one. That stands out.
You know, it talks about the government being on his
shoulders, that he's bearing, the weight of government, but
then there's this one one, this one metaphor that captures
something much more personal than all the others and it's the
one that I'm going to talk about today and that's Everlasting
father You see, when it describes him as a wonderful
counselor. I see him as somebody.
I can go and talk to and pray to.
And I know he hears me and I know that he responds to me when
I think Prince of Peace, I think of all of the clamor and turmoil
in my life and how he can bring peace into my life because of
what he has done for me. When he died for me, on the
cross was buried and rose from the dead.
When I think of Mighty God, I think about all of his power
power that can actually raise him from the dead, the power.
That could create the world of the universe, all this power.
But when I hear Everlasting father, now that's different
because that's personal, that's relational.
That's talking about his relationship to me. the things
that I know now as a father, and as a grandfather, and the things
that I witnessed with my father, I can describe some of that to
him and that is that he loves me no matter what.
That he gives me all these things even though I don't
deserve them and I didn't really have them coming to me.
This is special term Everlasting father.
Now, the night before, Jesus died for our sins, he actually
kind of connected with something from the book of Isaiah chapter
9. Even though those words were 700
years old, when, when we refer to them before Jesus, and he
said it by using a single phrase and and this is the night, this
is the night before he was crucified, look at what he says.
He says I will not leave you as orphans.
I want to stop right there. I'm going to read the rest of
this but But he's not saying your heavenly father will leave
you as will not leave you as orphans.
He's saying I will not Leave you as orphans now the idea of
Orphan has to do with parenting, right?
And so it's like even though Jesus is the son and we
recognized that the father is the father that's on his throne.
Jesus is ascribing to that like he is our father as well.
Like he has this kind of a relationship Tessa Harkens back
to Isaiah chapter 9, where the Son of God, the Messiah is
called Everlasting father. I will not leave you as orphans.
I will come to you before long. The world won't see many more,
but you will see me because I live, you will also live.
Wow, that's great because we know from his resurrection that
that power that raised Jesus from the dead.
Not only has the power to raised Jesus from the dead.
It has the power to raise you from the dead.
Has the power to raise me from the dead and as I'm
contemplating death on my 40th Day birthday.
I know that Jesus has the power to raise my father from death.
On that day, you will realize that I'm in my father, you're in
me and I'm in you listen to that relationship.
That's in there. The depth of this relationship.
So he's taking on the role of father to his disciples but not
just a father Everlasting father.
Is he, he wasn't going to let a petty thing like death at the
hands of mere mortals, separate him from us.
I think that's cool and Hebrews chapter 13.
It uses that term mere mortals. Look, I'll never leave you, I'll
never forsake you. That's that Everlasting quality.
So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper.
He did, he isn't that he was, he is right now because he exists
right now and I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me? What could mere mortals do?
To my savior, what could mere mortals do to a my Lord O?
They could put him on a cross. They could nail him to that
cross and he would pay the ultimate price and died on that
cross, but they couldn't keep him there.
Could they know they couldn't You see what my Earthly father
couldn't do? Because he was a mere mortal
just like I'm a mere mortal. My heavenly father.
My Everlasting. Father can do because he is more
than that. John the Baptist revealed this
to his followers when he was talking about Jesus, it's
recorded in John 130. It says, this is the one I
meant. He's pointing at Jesus and he
says, this is the one I meant when I said a man who comes
after me, has surpassed me because he was, before me now,
John, the Baptist was older than Jesus and yet he says he was
before me. So he's recognizing something
about Jesus, that's recorded also in Isaiah that he's an
everlasting. Father, the Hebrew writer also
describe, Jesus Everlasting quality and Hebrews. 13:8, Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Same Jesus, that died for you, 2,000 years ago, The same Jesus
that you were introduced to when you decided to become a
Christian as the same Jesus that I'll meet you at the Gates of
Heaven. He's the same yesterday today,
and forever. And I'm sharing this with you
today because Jesus Christ being my Everlasting, father is the
gift I need. We're going to get all sorts of
gifts, giving them receiving them experiencing so many things
in this season, but this really is the gift you need.
I was blessed to have an Earthly father.
That was incredible for me. I'll forever be grateful that he
chose my mother because that was the best decision he ever made.
And you know what? He gave me a lot of great things
he gave me his name, he gave me his traits, he gave me his care,
his love and his inheritance, he gave me a family to be a part of
so that I could feel Chosen and special but you have an
everlasting father. And I have an everlasting
father. And the fact that I'm his child
is no accident. You see I'm Chosen and special
and so are you every single one of you your Chosen and your
special because God was involved in your creation.
I know the world never stops saying that where the product of
circumstance and coincidence, and that's just a complete and
absolute lie. That's not true.
There's nothing coincidental about you, there's nothing
circumstantial about you. You were in it together in your
mother's womb by an everlasting. Father who loves you, who knew
you. Before you were born.
Science proves this. Really.
Yeah, you know, in the process of human creation, a woman
provides only a single product of her DNA, but the man provides
between 250 and 400 million variations of his DNA. 250 and
400 million and only one of those.
Got to be who you are today. You are fearfully and
wonderfully made. You are special and chosen
before you were born, you are already at Birth.
You were one and half a billion. Now, some of you at listen II
mean, I'm saying a lot of great things about my dad and I know
that some of you are not relating to what I'm saying,
because you had a completely different experience with your
Earthly. Father, maybe you have some
deep-seated anger. Maybe there's a lot of hurt
that's in your life on account of him but I want you to see
something today that your heavenly father was much more
involved in your creation than your Earthly father ever was.
And before you reject the word or the concept of father because
a lot of people do a lot of people, they hear that they've
had those their experiences and they're like I don't even like
hearing that, I don't even like God being called that.
Understand that the Earthly fathers there is shadow images
of our true father. Our heavenly father I want you
to consider that you're his creation.
That you were designed in heaven to be his child.
That you were fearfully and wonderfully made and when you
came into this world, he gave you his name, he gave you his
traits. He gave you his care and his
love and his inheritance. You remember what he said to us
in Genesis chapter 2. Now let us make Mankind in our
image after our likeness and let him rule.
You're made to be his child. Bible tells us that we are
co-heirs with Jesus Christ. We receive a portion of the
inheritance that we receive from our father.
Look at the family. Look around you.
And look at the family that he gave us.
To be a part of while we're here on Earth all the way in and
passed the Gates of Heaven. But unlike our Earthly fathers,
he will not leave us as orphans. He'll be our father Beyond the
Veil of this life and into eternity.
You and I were the same, we're the same because when we came
into this world, we were born. We were completely and
absolutely vulnerable, right? The only thing we knew was that
we needed, but we didn't even know how to communicate it
without crying. And even though I didn't have
any ability to do that on my own and I was completely vulnerable,
my heavenly father, your heavenly father provided people
for you to meet those needs in ways that at that time you or I
could not comprehend because you were powerless and I was
powerless. To come to Jesus.
Is to recognize that you're powerless.
Is to recognize that you can't solve these problems on your
own. That you're weak and vulnerable.
That all you understand, is that you need that.
There's something inside you that needs to be filled, but you
cannot provide it for yourself and only he can provide it for
you. That's why Jesus says that the
only way to come to him is to come as a little child.
Because a little child recognizes that sometimes we try
to be so with it, you know, we try to be so smart.
And think how we're going to get try to utilize my relationship
with God. When the thing that we must
learn is that we are just powerless and weak like little
children needing to come to our Everlasting, father because when
we do that, that's when we truly begin to recognize who we really
are. and the fact that he is the gift that I need the most some
of us during this season, we're going to be thinking about the
Nativity. How many of you have a nativity
scene in your house? Raise your hand, if you have a
nativity scene, right? A reminder, Of what Christmas is
really about. I remember growing up, we always
had that nativity scene. It was always front and center
under the tree, like, the tree was raised up and there was that
a nativity scene? To remind us about Mary and
Joseph, and the animals, and the angels, and the Shepherds.
And later, the wise men, we see this little newborn baby that's
swaddled and lying in a manger and we might even think, oh,
look at that poor little baby, you know, in the in that Barn in
Bethlehem and and that and that little child is so powerless and
soul vulnerable, not really Because you're in that picture.
And I'm in that picture. You're in that Nativity and I'm
in that Nativity because it's us the ones that are standing in
front of it, wherever it's placed in our house, we're the
ones that are really vulnerable and Powerless, we're the ones
that are really needy. Isn't it interesting?
Sometimes we see things in the wrong way, the in the wrong
perspective. And that's the way the world is
now. The world has the wrong
perspective about the Nativity, even if they believe in the
Nativity or even if they remember this historical
reality, that Jesus was born, they see all the wrong things.
I wonder what you see, when you see the Nativity in your mind's
eye. Let me tell you what I see, I
know what the world sees. The world sees poverty, Mary and
Joseph, nothing powerless, pay nothing and Here they are in a
barn, but, you know what? I see, I see royalty World sees
oppression, you know, at the hands of the Roman government,
but I see Deliverance, deliverance, from sin, the world
sees in significance, but I see greatness the world sees taxes,
but I see gifts the world sees Darkness, but I see the light of
the world. The world sees, no room at the
end, but I see an open door to every human heart World sees
rejection, but I see an invitation, the world sees
godlessness, but I see the Gospel World.
Here's a baby crying, but I can hear angels singing the world.
Here's a mother travailing, but I hear people rejoicing.
World sees just another mortal baby.
But I see. My Everlasting father. because
Isaiah said, For unto us. A child is born unto us a son is
given. And the government will be upon
his shoulders. And his name Shall be Called
wonderful, counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting father.
The prince. Of peace.
With all the things that are happening.
This Christmas season, all the things that are vying for your
attention Maybe right now at this moment is the time to
concentrate. On what you truly need.
The gift. You need the most We're moving
to a time of decision. So is that happening to you?
Is that as I is, it is it crazy right now?
Is it is everything like is your head like exploding?
Allison likes for me to drive her to High V.
Drop her off at the front. And then either Circle.
Or find a spot so she can call and I can pick her up.
And I kind of like that. because when you walk through, The
grocery store like might have five different counseling
sessions and I've got the aisle three yet.
So I'm all right with that. But not yesterday.
Not yesterday, yesterday was knots.
If you go into the high V parking lot, your IQ goes down
by at least 20. I don't know what get, I mean,
you know, it comes over people. I park in a spot.
I'm getting my car. Hit the doors in my car.
Come on, it's crazy people. You can see that they're
exasperated, they're rushing. It's crazy time, right?
And it can be a crazy time for you right now.
For lots of different reasons, it could be, you're trying to
get stuff ready because you got a lot of family coming in, it
could be that you're trying to get stuff ready because you're
going to be piling all your kids in the car and going, somewhere,
it could be That you're going to be facing Christmas alone this
year. And you don't have people to
celebrate with it's heartbreaking for you.
Could be a lot of different things.
And I don't know what's going on in your life.
I have no idea. But I know this.
That in spite of all of those things.
Last-minute shopping dinners to prepare for travel plans to
make. Loneliness to manage.
A heart that may hurt for one reason or another.
You have an everlasting father. If you are in an intimate
personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you have an everlasting
father. It's hectic, is this time is you
have an everlasting father? As lonely as it can be that
empty place at the table, that was there last year that was
being filled by someone you love.
Regardless of your circumstance in the lower story, you have an
everlasting father. I've experienced a
quarter-century of Christmases without my dad.
Thirty years without my mom. And even though I don't get to
have that place and I would give a lot to have those moments with
them. I know.
That they're saving a place at the table for me.
At a table. In heaven.
Because I was not left as an orphan. and if you're here
today, And you don't have that knowledge.
Because that flows out of an intimate personal relationship
with Jesus Christ. If you've never made that
decision, don't make wait for somebody else to try to buy you
that gift. It's already been paid for and
it's available for you because of what Jesus Christ is
accomplished and make that gift your own today because it's the
gift that you need. There's going to be someone
right over there by the baptistry would love nothing
more than to talk to you about your next steps in becoming a
follower of Jesus Christ. and like the Christmas carol, says,
When that is accomplished. You can sleep.
In Heavenly peace. Because you have a an
everlasting father. Many of you today have made that
decision for Christ. But you are caught up.
In the insanity. That is the season of the year.
But you did something very wise today, you took time out of that
crazy, busy schedule to spend time with your father, in
Heaven, your brothers and sisters in Christ and you're
here right now. I wonder if you might squeeze
just a little bit more potential out of this moment, is this
great that you're sitting here. It's great that you're
worshipping is great that you're listening, but I wonder if you
might squeeze just a little bit more potential out of this
moment to come up here and get down on your knees and whatever
burden you're carrying. To let him have it because if
the government can rest on his shoulders and I'm not talking
about one government or one nation, I'm talking about all
governments and All Nations. For all time, if he can bear,
the burden of all those governments on his shoulder, he
can take your burden, too. Not only will he take it, he
asks for it and I wonder if there's some here that just
might as you're going into this next crazy week.
If you might say, I'm going to get low and I'm going to let
this burden come off my shoulders.
And I'm going to let the Lord have it.
Just be that little child. Knowing that you need.
And let him provide for that need.
Would you stand with me? Let's pray together.
Heavenly father, in Jesus name. I pray that this that this
congregation when it leaves this place today, will feel their
burdens lifted. That father your son Jesus.
He took all of that burden on himself when he carried that
cross up the hill. When he carried all of our sins,
the weight of our sins. On his shoulders.
And even now he's here to carry those burdens.
And that's something that he will do.
For us. For all eternity because he is
the Everlasting father. so, I pray Right now.
That, like little children. We'll let you have that burden.
In Jesus name, amen. In Jesus name, amen.