Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Christmas 2015, Part 1: Christmas 2015

Episode Date: December 24, 2015

Around the world, Christmas sounds fill the air, Stockings are hung, lists written with care. We buy and we bake, we gift and receive, We decorate houses, cities, and trees. Christmas: it’s different, everywhere you go, But it began with... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, it is awesome to have all of you with us. And from my family to all of you, we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas as we worship and serve the Savior of the world, believing that God became flesh and dwelt among us. If you're new with us, maybe you're from out of town. I'll just kind of introduce myself. My name is Craig Rochelle. And I am married to my best friend, Amy, for almost 25 years, if you want to clap for that. We're pretty excited about it.

We actually, we're blessed to have seven kids. Those of you've been with us for a while, you'll say, I thought you had six kids. This year, we actually brought a son-in-law into the family, making seven. Here's a picture of our family complete with son-in-law and soccer ball, because that makes a good family picture. And I can be a little controversial at times,

if you haven't heard that. One of the things that upsets a lot of people is that I make cat jokes. If you're a cat lover, raise your hand. Raise your hand. You can be set free by the name of Jesus. And that's just kind of how it goes. I mean, we've had people leave the church.

They're just jokes. And so for all the cat lovers, I wanted to give you a little Christmas present, just a little Christmas love, and just tell you, I really secretly do like cats. I can't eat one by myself, but I really do like cats.

And so I just wanted to give that. to you for a little bit of love. I hope you feel the love this Christmas. And on a more serious or maybe not so serious note, my wife Amy does love cats. We actually have two at our house. And so since she loves cats, I created a little cat Christmas card for her. Does anybody in Rio Rancho, maybe Broken Arrow, maybe Stillwater, anybody at my campus want to see my Christmas card I made for? Ah, no, I don't think you really want to see it. You want to see it? Yes. This is it. That's what I made for her.

And if you'll notice, there's little cats on that sweater. I'm sorry, you cannot unsee that. Now you've seen it. It's in your mind. Someone asked Amy, what do you think of that? And she, who's seen Napoleon Dynamite, the movie? She said that I look like a cross between Kip and Uncle Rico. So I don't know, that's what it is.

But anyway, I want to go ahead and pray today as we dive into God's word. I'm thrilled to have all of you with this, and let's pray, and then we're going to look at Scripture. Father, thank you for every person that's come to worship you. God, thank you for those that don't know yet personally, the Savior of the world. We believe, God, that by the truth of your word and the presence of your spirit that you're going to do miracles today, we ask God that you would be honored and that you draw us closer to you, even that some would come to know you.

We pray this in Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. Amen. Well, I love this day because we actually gather together to celebrate the day in which all of history hinges upon. It's the day that divides time between what, let's say it aloud, between BC and AD. Now, all of our churches, what does BC stand for? It stands for before Christ. What does AD stand for? It stands for A lot of people say after death. It actually stands for two Latin words anodomani, which means, what does it mean? Who knows? The year of our Lord.

That's what it means. The year of our Lord. What's amazing to me is that our time is divided between before Christ and the year of our Lord changes everything. Whether you believe Jesus is the Son of God or not, doesn't really matter, our time is split in two. Now, what's interesting to me is there's kind of a push by some people not to use BC AD. In fact, in seminary, believe it or not, I was told to use BCE and C.E. Who knows what those are? Anybody know what those are? BCE stands for before common era. CE stands for common era.

And so since some people don't want to recognize before Christ and in the year of the Lord, we're going to call it B, C, E, and C.E and C.E. Now, it doesn't matter if you call it B-C-A-D, B-C-E-C-E-T-T-L-T, they lived then, W-L-L-N, we live now, whatever you call it, it's amazing to me to think about that at the birth of Christ, time was split and two. The challenge is we actually live in an AD time. We live in an era after Christ was born after the year of the Lord. Too many people, though, when it comes to God, live in an AD time with a before Christ mindset. And so today on this Christmas week, what I want to do is talk about what changed when Jesus came. To do so, we're going to start in Luke's Gospel, Luke

Chapter 2, and read one of the most powerful portions of Scripture defining the birth of Christ. Luke 2 8 through 10 says this. That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. Don't be afraid. He said, I bring you what? He said, I bring you good news.

Somebody in Broken Arrow helped me out. These kind of, these people are a little flat right now. I bring you what? I bring you good news that will bring what? That will bring great joy to whom? To all people, to anyone no matter what you've done in the past, where you've come from, how bad you've been, how dark your life seems. This is good news for all people who will believe, and the good news is this.

The Savior, yes, the Messiah of the Lord has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David. And at that announcement, everything changed as time even was divided into two. What I want to do is show you three different major changes. And I'm going to put some signs up on the letters. When I do that, that's your cue to fill in the blank. So I'm telling you this because I know that there are some of you that if you have a blank not filled in in your message notes, you will not sleep for the rest of the month. So this will be loving you, hope you feel the love.

So let me talk about, first of all, before Christ. Before Christ was born, there was a real sense of the law or what we might call religion. What is religion? We could define religion this way. Religion is us trying to close the gap between sinful man and a holy God. It's us recognizing, uh-oh, I've made some mistakes. I've sinned. Therefore, I need to follow some rules, and hopefully if I follow the law, if I'm good enough,

I might close the gap between my sinfulness and God's righteousness. In fact, we could kind of almost reduce this down to do. do's and don't. You know, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't chew, and I don't run with girls who do. Okay, so I'm a Christian, right? You know, I, I do certain things, and I don't do certain things. It's trying to please God with rituals or religion. And you almost kind of make up your own version of this. I don't know what it would be for you, where you come from, what your background is, but it might be, I go to church as often as I can, so I'm religious. Okay, I try to be a good person.

Maybe you say, I don't see rated our movies except for the passion of the Christ, because that one was okay. You know, I don't say cuss words, except for every now and then on the golf course, and surely God would understand that. After all, he made golf and made me. So, you know, I don't say that. I give money every now and then. Maybe I go to mass, or, you know, I pray the rosary, or I memorize the Bible, or I never wear yoga pants in public unless I have a long shirt. I don't know what it is, okay? I don't know what it is for you, but it's these different types of rules.

If I do this, then maybe I'm living up to the law and I'm going to please God. Jesus came, and instead of it being about religion, suddenly Jesus said, you can now have a relationship with God. And everything changed, a relationship. We need to recognize that Jesus did not come for religious people. Jesus actually came for unrighteous, unlikely people, and he came to show us who God is, that we could actually know God. And this is completely mind-blowing.

In fact, the religious people often got mad that the imperfect, unreligious people were having having a relationship with Jesus. And Jesus was confusing enough to say, I didn't come for the righteous, but I came for the unrighteous. He said, I didn't come for the healthy, but Jesus said, I came for the sick. I came to show them the love of God that they would know who God is. In fact, I have a friend, I'm just going to call him Mickey, not his real name, but I'm going to call him Mickey. I've been so much trying to help him understand this. What's really cool about Mickey is, is Mickey is not the type of guy that a pastor would normally be friends with, if you can kind of figure it out.

I love Mickey. One of the things I like about him is that he cusses around me. I really do like this, okay? He doesn't even know he's doing it. He has no idea. Most people who cuss all the time try to curb that when they're around me, or at least they apologize. I'm sorry, Pastor Crick, I didn't mean to say it.

He didn't even know to do that. And that's what I like about it. He's just himself. And I think, this is my theory, I think that Mickey likes that I like him, even though he's very different than the kind of guy a pastor would normally hang out with. And so once I got to know Mickey just a little bit, I kind of started asking him some spiritual questions. And he believes in God, but he also knows that he's way too bad for God.

I said, Mickey, man, you got to understand. Jesus came for people just like you. He loves you. He came. And you're like, no, no, no, man. Jesus didn't come from me. He said, no, no, no, no. You got to understand.

Look at these people, and I told them about some of the people in Bible. They were really, really bad. He came for people like you. He loves you just as you are. And you can tell Mickey wants to believe this, but he's not quite there. Well, Mickey told me a story about a party he had at his house, and people were drunk and maybe other things. and they started making fun of pastors in churches.

And they actually started making fun of me, he told me. It's like, they did what? I didn't know anybody ever did that. What do you mean? So they were saying bad things about me. Well, Mickey took up for him. He's like, hey, don't talk about Groshael like that. Like, why do you care, man?

You're not a religious guy. Like, well, but I know him. And he's not like that. And they were bringing criticism, and he was drunk and taken up for me. And he was telling me, he was proud of this. He said, I told him, man, that you. You're cool and that you like me and that you haven't told me that Jesus likes me. And I told them that if you were here, you'd probably tell them Jesus likes them too.

Mickey, by the end of his part, he told me, I just told him if you're staying at my house, you're all holding up your drinks and we're going to toast Jesus and Pastor Craig. I like that. I love that. Now, that may offend some of you. Okay? I absolutely with all of my heart believe that is very close to the hearts of God because Jesus came for people like Mickey. He didn't come for the righteous, but he came for the unrighteous. In fact, if I ask you how you defined eternal life, some of you might say eternal life,

that's when you live forever in heaven or something like that. Let me show you how Jesus defined eternal life. He said this, John 173. He said, now this is eternal life. that they may what, somebody say it aloud, that they may know you. You know what eternal life is? It's a relationship that they may know you, God, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. My great fear is this, that there are a lot of people who know about God, but don't know God with a relationship. there are a lot of people who might tragically miss heaven by about 18 inches because Jesus came that we might know God.

In fact, there's a very sobering verse in the New Testament, Matthew's Gospel, Matthew 722 talking about after our time on earth. Our life is over and it goes, you know, some version of this. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, they say to Jesus, didn't we prophesy in your name and drive out demons in your name and perform many miracles? We might say, didn't we give money to that guy on the side of the street? Didn't we serve Thanksgiving meals, that won Thanksgiving to people who were, didn't we do these good things, Jesus? And Jesus said, then I will tell them plainly, I never what?

I never knew you. You see, when Jesus came, everything changed. Now we didn't have to try to live up to the law, but he actually fulfilled the law. And he came to show us that we could have a relationship with God. Everything changed when Jesus came. Let me show you something else. Before Christ, people would often wonder, have I done enough? I made the sacrifice of my lamb at the temple.

Was it a good enough lamb? They wondered. This was me for years and years, wondering, where do I stand with God? I went to a vacation Bible school. I don't know if you know what that is. It's like a cool little fun Sunday school for kids all week long at this kid's house. And at the end of the week, they asked us to close our eyes. And if we weren't sure, if we would go to heaven, we were supposed to raise our hands.

And I was not sure. I wondered. I wondered. I wondered. So I just raised my hand. I thought everybody would raise their hand, because how could you know? Well, lo and behold, this was a Baptist camp, and all the other Baptist kids knew, and I didn't know. And so they took me behind the garage, and there were very well-meaning adults, I'm certain.

There was a garage. There was a chain link fence, and there was me. And they said something like, if you don't know, then if you die, you're going to go to hell. And when they said hell, it wasn't just hell. I'm telling you, it echoed. They said, you're going to go to hell, hell, hell, hell, hell. And I'll be honest with you. When they said that, it scared the hell, hell, hell, hell, hell, hell.

out of me. So I ran all the way home. It's like a little rascal scene. I'm a kid. Ran all the way home, ran into my closet and cried my brains out. God, please don't send me to hell. Please don't send me to hell. Please don't send me to hell.

Romans 816 tells us this. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are what? We are God's children. Because of Christ, we don't have to wonder, but the Holy Spirit can actually testify with our spirit, and we can what? We can know that we are a child of God. In fact, I no longer wonder. It's the most amazing thing to have a peace and an assurance that, yes, I'm a sinner, but all of my sins have been forgiven. And I don't have to worry.

It's a little bit like this. Well, I messed up. So did I lose my salvation? stuff. Well, think about it this way. When your kid is learning to walk, they do the Frankenstein, right? They're doing the, you know, and then what do they always do? Boom, they always fall down. Do you ever say, well, you had a good run at it, but you can't be my kid? I'm putting you by the doorstep and hope someone else picks you up because you fell down. You don't do that, okay? They fall down, they're still your kid. Okay? If one of my children do something wrong and you say,

hey, are you Craig's son? Is my son going to go, oh, well, I was yesterday, but oh, I did something today, I may not be. No, of course not. What's you going to do? Well, yes, I'm the son. How do you know? Got his last name, okay?

We've been adopted into the family of God. My name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I know that I am a child of God. And because Jesus came, we don't have to wonder, we can know that our sins have been forgiven. adopted into the family of God. When Jesus came, everything changed. One more thought. Before Christ, if you wanted to experience the presence of God, you actually had to go to God. It was believed that God would dwell in the temple, therefore you would go to the temple to make a sacrifice and to

worship God. You would go to God. When Jesus came, you no longer have to go to God. You no longer have to go to God because God came to be what? To be with us. And this is profound in how it transforms our life. In fact, before we had to go to the temple to be with God. Now the New Testament actually says that our bodies are the temple of the Spirit. And God dwells within all of us. In fact, Matthew 123 says this, look, the Virgin,

will conceive a child. She'll give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means what? Somebody say it loud. It means God with us. It is God with us. We don't have to go to him, but he comes to be with us. I give you a crazy illustration that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense,

but I want to tell it anyway. Can you work with me? I'm doing this all week long. I'm going to have some fun, whether you do it or not, okay? years ago, I was putting Christmas lights up on my house, and I'll show you a picture of my daughter, Katie. She was actually watching. This was Katie at this time. Now Katie is the one who's married to that guy, Andrew, that happens to work for the church so I can keep an eye on them.

Actually, great, great guy. We're super thankful for their relationship. I'm out putting lights on the roof, and Katie was going, be careful, dad, be careful. and I'm kind of hanging over the ledge. She ran into the house, came out and brought a chair, put the chair right below me, and stood on the chair and looked up at me. And that's weird. And so I didn't say anything.

I'm like wanting to work, just see what happens. So I moved a couple feet over, and I'm putting some more lights on. She gets off the chair. She moves it over. She's standing looking right up at me. Come thinking, she's homeschooled. We made this kid weird. What is she doing?

I don't know. And so we do it again. I go over there and she picks the chair and she moves. I said, baby, what are you doing? She said, Daddy, don't worry, I promise you I'll catch you if you fall. I'm always with you. I'm always with you. That's why she's one of my top three favorite children, okay?

I can't have favorites. But, you know, Daddy, no matter what, I'm always going to be with you. I'll catch you when you fall. Now, we all know that if she tried to catch me, it wouldn't do much good. Okay? But we also know that our God is with us and will never leave us nor forsake us. and if we start to fall, he is the one who will catch us. Anytime we're alone, Jesus is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

When you don't know what to do, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. When you are hurting, Jesus is your hope. When you are sick, Jesus is your healer. When you are lost, Jesus will come and find you. and when you sin, Jesus will be your Savior. You see, this is the miracle of the birth of Christ. We don't have to go to Him, but God came to be with us. 2,000 years ago, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And when that happened, everything changed. Even our time is different because of the birth of Christ. No longer do we have to try to perform and live up to the law because Jesus fulfilled the law. Now it's not about behavior modification as much as it is a heart transformation that we can have a living relationship with a living God because of the perfect work of Jesus. No longer do we have to wonder, have I been good enough?

But now we can actually know our spirit bears witness with God's spirit that we are children of God. And the beauty is this. We don't even have to go to a place to experience God because he came to us in the person of his son, Jesus. And he will be with us and never leave us and never forsake us. And that is why Luke said this. He said, don't be afraid.

I bring you what? I bring you good news. That will be great joy to all people. The Savior. Yes, the Messiah of the Lord. has been born today in Bethlehem, and that event changed everything. When the word became flesh,

God dwelt among us and sent his son, born of a virgin that he did not inherit sin from a human father, born to live the perfect life, to die the most horrible death, that he would be raised so that anyone. And this includes people like Mickey. it includes people like you and includes people like me. Anyone who calls on his name would be saved and forgiven forever.

All of our churches, let's pray. Father, we ask that in your presence, you would do a work in us that only you could do. And all of our churches, as you reflect now in prayer, I want to take a moment and just pray for a bunch of you because I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but so often it seems like Christmas time is a magnifier. Christmas kind of magnifies the good things.

It makes them feel even better. Oh, wow, this is awesome. But for those who are going through a more difficult time, Christmas can almost magnify the hardship. If you're hurting, sometimes it seems like you hurt a little bit more. It's like a magnifier for some people. And so I want to take a moment. and pray, especially for those who may be facing what's not your ideal Christmas.

Maybe you've been through something, maybe some kind of deep hurt, maybe you've got family dynamics that are a little bit awkward, maybe some massive relational tension. It could be that there's like looming financial stress. So many people feel that all the time, especially this time of the year. Could be some kind of a health issue. It could be any number of different things. but if you say, you know, honestly right now, there are some challenges, I wish there were some things that were different.

And I really need the Emmanuel presence of God. I need the God with us. I need God to be with me. I need God to be with us. I need his comfort. I need his presence. I'd be honored if you'd let me pray with you. At all of our churches, nobody else is looking around.

This is just really between you and God. If you say, yes, I need a touch from God today. Would you lift up your hands right now just all over the churches today? hands went up everywhere. God, I take a moment and just want to thank you that you know the details of every person's life. And, God, you care more than we could even imagine. So I pray right now, God, that you would in a way

that only you could do, that you would comfort those who are hurting. God, I pray that in your presence that there would be healing. God, I pray that for those who are doubt, there would be hope. Father, for those who may be hurt by someone, I pray that in your presence, as you've forgiven us, you would give us the ability to forgive others. We pray, God, for miracles that only you could do. We pray for relational miracles. We pray for financial provision. God, we pray for physical healing. We pray even more, God, that your presence would be exactly what we need. We call on you today. God, when we are weak,

We pray that you would be strong. God, for those who are hurting today, we pray that Emmanuel, God, with us, even here now, God, that your presence would bring healing just exactly what we need. As you keep praying today, there are a lot of you that this is going to be a really, really special day. You may be like me where you wonder, hey, you know, where do I stand with God? I was growing up, I wondered, wondered, wondered, wonder, wonder, wondered. I believe that you can know. There may be those of you like me.

I thought, hey, I got to try to be really, really good. I can't be so bad. I got to try to be more religious in order to please God. And I didn't recognize that the AD, the New Testament actually teaches, that you cannot be good enough for God that is impossible to work your way there. If we could work our way there, there would be no need for Jesus. And that's the beauty of when God, became flesh.

Jesus was born without sin, lived the perfect life, died the most brutal death, because of God's goodness, he was raised from the dead, so that anyone, and here's the good news, anyone who calls on his name

would be saved. All of their sins forgiven. They'd be made completely brand new. In all over churches, there are those of you, you are here for this moment, and you can recognize it. There's something drawing you toward God.

You don't understand. what that is, listen to me, that is the love of God through His Holy Spirit reaching out to you. And it's time for you to say yes. Yes, Jesus, I believe that everything changed when you came. Yes, I believe you died for me. And yes, by faith, I want to surrender my life to you. And all of our churches, those who say, yes, I need him. I need his grace.

Today, I surrender to him. That's your prayer. Would you lift your hands high right now and say, yes, Jesus. I give my life to you right here in this section. Praise God for you. Others of you today right back over here. Say, yes, Jesus, I surrender right over here in this section. Others who would call on him today and say, transform me.

Be the Lord of my life. Church online, you click right below me. And I would ask all of you to pray with those around you. No one prays alone. Pray Heavenly Father, forgive me of all of my sins. Make me brand new. I believe that Jesus died for me. and he rose again so I could live for you.

Fill me with your spirit so I could know you, have a relationship with you, so I could follow you. My life is not my own. I give it to you. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name I pray. Would you all worship big, worship loud and celebrate new life.

Christ.