Christmas Day Devotional 2022

Well, Merry Christmas, everybody! So my name is Renee, I'm another one of the pastors here, and you know, I don't know if I've mentioned, but we have some grandchildren, and we have five now, and a couple of them are joining us there in the front view, and Freddie and Danny, why don't you guys wave to everybody? They're in their pajamas! As is our, this is our youngest little one, this is Amelia, she's our granddaughter, and Amelia, hi, hi you! Hi! Amelia is going to be one on December 27th, so she was almost a Christmas baby, look at all those people waving at you.

So this kinda reminds me that on Christmas services, typically we have a lot more kids in the congregation than we normally do. Of course, we have a fleet of kids. What was that? Oh, she wanted to make a comment there for a second, but we got a ton of kids in the services, and I love it, don't you, all you grownups? Let's welcome the kids into church, big church! 'Cause we want you guys to get into the habit of going to big church. Yeah, that's right.

And so, you know, if you hear a baby crying, like during Kyle's wonderful devotional, by the way, Kyle, great job, you hit it out of the park with that one. But you know, when you hear that little baby crying, just think to yourself, it's the soundtrack of Christmas, that's the baby Jesus I'm hearing right now. And if you see a toddler running around, think to yourself, that's John the Baptist running around right now. And if it's a teenager, think that's one of the farm animals running around right now. But awesome, well great, thank you so much kids for being here, let's thank Trent and Meliza for leading in worship.

Well, this is the eighth church service of the weekend, and I wanna show you something. The last two days, we have had beautiful candlelight services. We had approaching 5,000 people attend these services. It was just, raise your hand if you were at one of these candlelight services, just beautiful, and you all saw the amazing talent offered to the Lord on stage. So grateful to our worship team and their commitment, let's thank all of those people who did such a good job.

But I was thinking this morning, I thought, I also wanna thank all the people who you didn't see on stage who really made the whole weekend possible. I went around last night taking some pictures, for example, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The amazing greeters who were at every door handing out programs with a welcoming smile, thank you, greeters, so much. The ushers who were on candle duty, thank you, guys. We had a choir caroling outdoors as people walked in, our whole facilities team, which kept the whole place clean, they were up late last night vacuuming this whole building.

Then we had our tech team, these were the sound and light guys who made it look and sound so beautiful. And then, you know, we live streamed the whole thing. This is our video director, Jamie Rong, and the people behind the cameras who, as people joined us on the live stream, did all of that work. And then the sound and tech team for the live stream, put your hands together for all of those tech people who made it all happen.

And you know, this is really key too, because we had children's church for kids up to five years old, so the amazing children's team keeping those little ones happy and telling them about Jesus, so let's thank them too for doing a wonderful job. And then of course, Valerie Webb produced it all, and behind the scenes, she's been making brunch for you all this morning, by hand, so let's thank everybody, just put your hands together, let's thank everybody, that's the tip of the iceberg. So grateful.

All right, it's Christmas morning, so let's talk about the best gift ever, but first, let's talk about the worst gift ever, because we've all experienced this. I saw some posts the other day that prove sometimes you just don't get what you're hoping for on Christmas morning, like this kid, thanks for the iPad, grandma, look closer, it's a medical iPad. Or this woman who says, my grandparents gave my mom a coffee mug shaped like a toilet. The amazing thing to me is somebody makes these. Somebody thought, you know what there's market share for? I don't know.

And then there was the husband who loved Star Wars so much, he gave his wife a wookie jacket, she seems thrilled. I love this one, for Christmas I got you $25 worth of lottery tickets, I went ahead and scratched them off for you, you won two bucks, here is that two bucks, Merry Christmas, Nicole. This dad got a Last Will and Testament kit. I love the look on his face. Oh my goodness, and just finally for now, this is a Christmas card fail, Merry Christmas, we love you, next year will be different, hugs and kisses mom and dad.

All right, those are the bad ones, but what makes a gift good? Well, the best Christmas gifts are a fun surprise, a perfect fit, they are loved immediately and then cherished forever, they're even life changing. For example, the other day I ran across a box of some old photographs and super eight millimeter film. Anybody remember super eight? From my own childhood, so for just a couple of minutes, I'm gonna take you down memory lane here because I'd forgotten so many things.

Like for example, I'd forgotten that when I was 12 years old I went on a campaign for a few months that I grew so tired of being made fun of in school, and I was convinced that I was being made fun of because of my name, because my name is Renee, which some people think is a girl's name, of course they're terribly wrong. But I was really super sensitive, so I went on a campaign to be called Ray, okay, because I thought then no one will ever make fun of me again.

So with that setup, here is a movie of Christmas 1973, our living room and there I am, and I wanna say it wasn't your name. There's my cousin's wife Debbie going, this is a weird family, and my cousin Dieter going, I told you that they were weird. And there's my beautiful cute sister Heidi and my really beautiful elegant mom, and there's my little Swiss aunt Pia. And then what we always did, 'cause we're Swiss immigrants, we did this thing, this ritual, where you play the shepherd's flute and you go from room to room, it's like this pagan thing casting out the evil spirits.

Again, I wanna say it wasn't your name, Renee. And then it was time to show our gifts, my sister with her stuffed animals, she got this K-Tel record from me. Do you remember K-Tel? 22 original hits, I gave it to her because I wanted it, of course, naturally. And here I am with my gifts, somebody gave me a motocross poster, they heard that teenagers liked them, I never used it, and then a new trespassing sign, same reason, I never used it.

But for some reason, I was super into 1930s pop culture when I was 12, so somebody gave me a Marx Brothers book, but wait, there's more, I say. Somebody gave me a Dick Tracy comic strips collection from the 1930s, somebody gave me a collection of eight track tapes of old radio shows like Gangbusters and The Green Hornet, Intersanct, and because again, I just love 1930s pop culture, I don't know why I did, but here was the best gift ever, this practical joke, a double mint gum pack when your victims took a stick, it almost snapped their fingers in half. That was the best gift ever that year.

But here's my point, someone knew me well enough to know, I didn't like most of the usual teenager stuff, the teenager, you know, motocross posters or whatever, I liked 1930s culture when I was 12. My favorite band was the Glenn Miller Orchestra. And I repeat, I thought people made fun of me because of my name. But someone really knew me and blessed me with those great gifts that were perfect fits for me.

Just a couple more, this is from 1963, I'm two and a half, and I got a fire truck, which I rode until I physically couldn't cram myself into it anymore. And 1965, I still remember this GI Joe, I remember the plastic smell of the boots, right? And finally, here's a photo of the only Christmas present from my childhood that I still have, this Bible. With pictures. At the time, I gotta admit, I thought, oh, that's okay, and I got back to GI Joe pretty quick, but this is the present that lasted. This is the one that grew on me, that comforted me when my father died a few months after this picture was taken. This was the gift that actually changed my life, for real, clearly.

Now, thanks, but what I'm worried about right now is that all the parents here are gonna go, I should have bought my kid a Bible, that's not why I'm bringing this up. Here's my point, what culture thought I would need and want, and what I thought I needed and wanted was different from what I actually ended up really needing and loving, which was the best gift ever.

Well, here's my thought, God made you and knows you better than anybody who ever knew you, and he got us all the best gift ever. Very quickly today, I wanna go to the Gospels of Christmas. Matthew, Luke, and John, the three of the four gospels that talk about Christmas, and just quickly walk through some verses that describe this perfect gift, so you can appreciate it. And there's Jesus.

So first, the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew says, this is how the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, came about. His mother, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. And because her husband, Joseph, was faithful to the law, didn't wanna expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he'd considered this, after he'd thought this through, I don't know, what am I gonna do? An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and said, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

And here's the verse I wanna focus on. This is where it gets pretty exciting for Joseph and all of us. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Now, check this out. You may not know this. Jesus is actually a transliteration of the Latin name. But Joseph didn't hear Jesus from the angel. He heard Hebrew where it's pronounced Yeshua. Say that with me. Yeshua, which is the exact same name as our English word transliterated as Joshua. Jesus, Yeshua, Joshua are all the exact same name, just in different languages.

Why bring this up? What Joseph hears is an angel say to him, you are to give him the name Joshua. And what's important is the Jewish people believe the Messiah would come in the spirit of Joshua. He'd be a military leader, just like Joshua. And just like Joshua vanquished all of Israel's enemies, in the same way the Messiah would show up and throw off Rome, and we would be a great nation again. That was the expectation.

But the angel tells Joseph, this Joshua is going to come to save people from the thing they need saving from the most. Not a change of government, not from the Romans, but from their sin. You think you need a government change. You think you need a regime change. You think you need a circumstance change. What you need is a real change down deep inside. What you need is a warrior like Joshua who will vanquish your greatest enemy and liberate you from your greatest oppressor, which is your guilt and your sin. Because that's what keeps causing the wars and causing the violence and causing relationship breakdowns.

And we all sense that distance between us and God, and we long for that, kind of like that old song, my sweet Lord, I really want to see you, but there's this distance. So God comes down to give us his presence and his love. Okay, now let's skip over to the Gospel of Luke. We saw this last night, so I'll just mention it briefly. Another angel says to the shepherds, and everybody, if you can read, let's read what the angel said to the shepherds out loud. It's on the screen. Here we go, let's say it out loud. Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

What good news could be happy news for everybody? Usually if it's good news, like for the Niners last night, how many of you watched football on Christmas Eve? Can I see a show of hands? Good news for the Niners, bad news for their opponents, right? But there's some good news that's gonna be good news for everybody. What? Well, he says today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He's the Messiah, the Lord. Again, same thing he told Joseph, a savior. You're gonna be saved from what?

Let's go to our final and third gospel, the Gospel of John. Now, you may not know this, but John, who wrote this, he is the person who ends up taking care of Mary, the mother of Jesus, until she's a very old woman. And he does this because Jesus, when he's hanging on the cross at the end of his earthly life there, at the crucifixion, rather, he asks John to do that. Take care of mom for me. And John did, historically. Took her probably to Ephesus, which is now in Turkey, and took care of her there until she was an old woman. And he outlived her and he became an old man himself.

So my point is, John would have heard these Christmas stories from Mary, right, over and over. She would have told him the story of what the angel said to her, and what she heard from the shepherds, and what that first Christmas was like. And then when John is himself a very old man, and he's sitting by himself, probably on an island called Patmos, and he's thinking, I gotta come up with a way to summarize Christmas. And he's going, with his pen in hand, how do I summarize this, how do I summarize this?

He writes two sentences, and little did he know that what he was about to write would be repeated and even memorized by children. It's the first verse many children memorize from the Bible, and adults all over the world. What he was about to write would be memorized in hundreds of languages that had not yet been spoken, in countries that had not yet been discovered. John, who saw it all, who experienced it all, who heard the story from Mary, he's thinking, how do I summarize this? And by God's grace and the inspiration of the Spirit, John summarizes it this way.

But God so loved the world, this is the Christmas story, that he gave a gift on that very first Christmas, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever, and that means anyone, no one is excluded. Whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, joining us on the live stream, believes in him, trusts in him, will not perish, but have eternal what? Life.

Now, can you imagine being the one who wrote down this sentence first? And the moment he's done, he wonders, you think this’ll stick? Is that memorable enough? Little did he know, here we are 2,000 years later, most of us can quote it from memory. But it didn't stop there. Here's the part we never memorized as children. Here's the kicker. Here's the punctuation. Here's the thing. Here's why we celebrate Christmas. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, unlike what a lot of people think about religion, but to save the world through him.

Wow. Everybody say wow. Wow. That's Christmas. That's why we celebrate Christmas, because the angels were right. God sent us, this means in spite of what we think we need, in spite of what you think you needed this Christmas, in spite of what culture says you need, what you really need is a personal savior who is Christ the Lord. That is the best gift ever. Amen?

All right, well, let me wrap it up. I started with some of the worst gifts, right? Here's one of the best things I saw posted, though. Here's a little boy who for some reason is dressed in a dinosaur costume, but he gets a new baby for Christmas. Watch this.

There's a son.

Hi.

Mommy, where is that son?

He's right here.

That's your brother.

He's right here.

Right here, passing him.

Wow.

What do you think?

You're my best friend forever.

Aw, isn't that cute? Well, my prayer is that you would receive the child born to you this day with the same joy because he is the best gift ever. Let's pray. Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for such a great gift. And God, I pray that all of us, whether we're with tons of family or with a small group or maybe we're alone and that's why we're here this Christmas or maybe why we're joining on the livestream this Christmas, I pray that we would all rejoice in the gift that we can't open physically, but we can sure open spiritually as we open our heart to you and you transform us from the inside out. You truly are the best gift ever. And we say wow and we say thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.