Christmas At Cornerstone

how many of you, when you were young, would wait till no one was around, you would sneak over to the Christmas tree and you would shake your gifts trying to figure out what was inside? Okay. Like three of you are honest. So when when I was 10, I I was a master of this.

I literally knew every single present that I was getting before I opened it. And a matter of fact, I would announce it. I'd say, oh, this is the new GI Joe set, and then I'd open it up. Sure enough. Oh, this is my brand new Atari game, and I'd open it up. Sure enough.

Which deeply frustrated my mom. So she began to disguise my gifts. She she would put them in an extra big box or she'd put like weights inside the box to try to keep me from guessing. But there's there's one that no matter what you do, you cannot disguise it, socks. Socks, socks are just socks

and I got to tell you, when you are a 10 year old boy, the last thing you want at Christmas time is socks. I would have willingly worn every single pair of socks I had three days in a row if it meant I could have actually gotten a better gift at Christmas. How many of you at some point got a horrible Christmas gift? Okay,

would you share it? What did you get that was so bad? Just yell it out loud. A what? A hunting fork. Oh, spoon and fork, just what every woman wants.

A hunting spork and then you could like slay animals with it. You could just like, yeah, they're you know, okay. What else? Who else got like a horrible gift for Christmas, what did get? Yell it out. What was it? Socks. Socks.

Socks. How old are you? 10. 10, that's what I said, it's like the worst gift for a 10 year old boy, socks. Anyone else, horrible Christmas gift, what'd you get? Lady the Tramp movie.

How old are you? 45 and your family gave you a lady and the tramp movie. You realize that was one of your kids movies rewrapped. Right? You you understand that. We had in one of the earlier services, we had someone who had been given soap from a motel that they had taken, they just and re wrapped it.

There was a gal at one of our earlier services, her husband gave her a scale.

So so one year, my wife Lisa gave me a nose hair trimmer. Now I I don't know what she was implying by giving that to me, but the irony of the moment was I already had a nose hair trimmer.

So I I took it, I didn't even take the cellophane off of it. I I went to my closet, I put it on the floor, I kind of slid it under, you know, some shirts there, you'll never guess what she gave me the next year, another nose hair trimmer.

I opened it up, I'm like, Lisa, you gave me a nose hair trimmer last year and she went, really? And I go, yes, matter of fact this, this is the exact same model that you gave me last year. And she got kind of a sheepish grin and I looked at her and I said, did you find my nose hair trimmer and re gift me my own? Maybe.

I believe at this point, she still owes me a Christmas gift because I'm one behind right now on the deal. And with that, we'll read the Christmas story.

Here we go. If you got your Bibles, if you brought them with you, it's Luke chapter two and you can find that by going to the back of your Bible, work your way to the left, you're going to find this book of Luke. There's a chance

that many of us as we go home tonight to open up gifts or maybe in the morning that we'll read this passage to our family. It's the passage that talks about the first Christmas gift, the best Christmas gift. So here we go, it's Luke two, we'll start in verse one together, here's what it says. In those days, Caesar Augustus

issued a decree decree that a census should be taken to the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria and everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem,

the town of David because he belonged to the house and the line of David. He went there to register with Mary who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child and while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.

She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them and there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby keeping watch over their flocks at night and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were absolutely

terrified. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you, he is the Messiah, the Lord and you saw it, God's gift, a savior and here's the interesting thing, for some,

a savior has been exactly what the angel said, he's been great joy.

For some, a savior has felt like socks. And what's the difference? Why is it that some receive the savior and receive great joy and some look at a savior and go, I just don't even know what to do with a savior, I'm not sure I need a savior, he kinda seems like socks and the difference is this, the ones who have found great joy

are the ones who have opened the package and the ones who haven't experienced are the ones that went, I just don't even know that I need a savior. I I think I'm okay without a savior. I wish I could have gotten a better Christmas gift than socks.

So here's the question, why? Why do some people think that a savior is socks?

I want you to imagine for a moment that you go out to the ocean, you're gonna swim and as you get prepared to go out and swim, you notice that there's a lifeguard tower and so you begin to swim and it just so happens a riptide begins to pull you out and in exhaustion, you begin to drown and in that moment,

you are absolutely thankful for a lifeguard, you are thankful for a savior. Some of us, some of us came to this service drowning. Man, our lives are out of control, our finances are in a place we just can't even figure out how we are ever going to dig our way out of that hole.

Our lives are filled with anxiety and although the doctors given us pills, the pills aren't enough. Our marriage is headed toward divorce. Our kids are living in absolute rebellion and we as parents have tried everything we possibly can and nothing is changing it. We walked into this room and we felt empty inside

and when you're drowning, you are thankful for lifeguards and you are thankful for saviors. But truth be told,

some of us, some of us walked into this service and we're like, hey, my life is great, I mean, it's going super well, it's like we were out swimming in the ocean and we were doing the back stroke, we were doing the breast stroke, we were doing the freestyle, we're doing perfectly fine

and we look at a lifeguard tower and we go, I just don't think it's necessary, I mean I am okay, I am great

and we might be arrogant enough or maybe naive enough to believe that our lives will always be that way and that we can be in control. But here's what I need to tell you that even if you walked into this place and you go, Lynn, my life's my life is super good and I just can't even figure out why I need a savior,

you need to know that saviors are still relevant for you.

When God created trees, he created them in such a way that there are three things that are absolutely essential for a tree to live.

A tree has to have sunlight, a tree has to have carbon dioxide and a tree has to have water. And so I want you to imagine for just a moment that somewhere after Christmas you decide, hey, we're gonna plant a tree and so you put it in your yard, you put it in a place where it's gonna get lots of sunlight,

you're confident that it's going to get carbon dioxide because your family is full of heavy breathers, but you decide in that moment, I'm not going to water the tree. You realize to make that decision is actually a death sentence because you have said, I don't care that water is absolutely essential for the tree to live,

I am gonna withhold water and the moment you make that decision, the tree begins to die. Here's why that matters, because God didn't just create the tree, he created you and when he created you, he gave you a soul and the thing that is absolutely essential for your soul is a relationship with God, he created you that way.

The problem is this, we've sinned. We've done things that we shouldn't have done and in that moment, we hemorrhage our relationship with God. It's if as if the thing that our soul needed most which was that connection to God, we just said no and we severed it and from that moment, our soul began to shrivel,

it began to thirst for that relationship that we had lost and I know, I know, I know, I know when I say hey we sinned that that kind of bothers us and we don't like to talk about sin and being sinners.

But we would admit we disobeyed right? We would admit that there's things God said we shouldn't do and we did them anyways like he said you shouldn't lie and we lied. He said you should be envious about what other people have and although we called it comparison, it was envy.

He said don't gossip and we said well God you don't understand how good it makes me feel to put other people down so that I can feel better about myself. He said wait till marriage before you sleep with your boyfriend or girlfriend and we went, everybody else is doing it

and here's what you need to know, that who I disobey actually magnifies my disobedience. When you were a kid and you were in school and you disobeyed the teacher, chances are you had to stay after school for study hall. When you got a little bit older,

started driving and you decided to disobey the laws of the road, a police officer pulled you over, handed you a ticket for hundreds of dollars and then, if that wasn't enough, you actually had to go to traffic school, which apparently they have done their very, very best to make as boring as possible. I

don't know this from experience, but I've been told. So think about it for a moment, when you were disobedient as a school child, it was an hour after school, but now be disobedient to the laws of the land and suddenly it's hundreds of dollars and a horrible boring class because who you disobey magnifies the disobedience.

Try being in the military and to be disrespectful to a general, you'll be thrown in the brig and there is a good chance you'll be discharged from the army. Why? Because who you disobey magnifies the disobedience.

Disobey God and I know I know you said, I I didn't like the rule, I I thought God was being a little silly, I I thought he was being old fashioned when he said that. It doesn't matter, disobey God and it's sin. And in that moment,

not only did we hemorrhage that relationship, lose that relationship with him, we forfeited heaven. It was not a small thing in our lives and because our souls in that moment began to dry up,

shrivel up because we weren't experiencing that relationship, then we said, well, I I've got to do something because I know I know this, I know there's something missing in me and so we tried to fill it. For some of us, we said, hey, maybe if I make a ton of money

and I can buy a whole bunch of really, really fun things, bigger houses, bigger boats and then maybe enough toys will take that thing that just isn't right in me and it'll feel more right. Some of us thought it was a relationship, if I if I could just find the perfect spouse and if I could train them,

then maybe the thing in me will be filled again. Some of us thought it was respect, some of us thought it was being popular or being successful in our business and guys look, here's what you need to hear, there's nothing wrong with making a ton of money, there's nothing wrong with being respected or finding incredible,

those things are all good things, they're just not the thing

that you and I were missing and so when we chase them, it's like we put fertilizer on a tree that's dying from thirst, it just can't possibly satisfy that which is unsatisfied inside of us. Let that sink in for a moment, all the good things that you and I have chased are like fertilizer on a soul that needs water, that needs

a savior.

A while back, I needed to attend a wedding. I had just gotten back. I had been in India and I had been in Africa doing pastor's conferences. I had literally flown in the day before. The wedding was in the afternoon and if you know anything about jet lag, it's about two, three in the afternoon and you are a zombie.

Lisa had stayed back in Africa. I had to go. I had to go because the little gal that was getting married had grown up in Cornerstone. Her mom and dad had been dear, dear friends for years and years and I couldn't possibly miss, so I pushed through the jet lag, I drove to the wedding, I I sat through the ceremony, probably

was nodding off while it was going on, when the ceremony got over, I went up to the family, I hugged everybody, I wanted them to know that I was there and then I ditched the reception. I started heading for home so I could get some sleep and I

pulled up to the kind of highway that was there, turned left, started heading toward my house. I got about the eighth of a mile down the road and around the bend comes this convertible with the top down and the guy in the convertible who is coming in the left lane beside me starts waving his arms like this and I am like,

what's his problem? And then around the bend comes a wall of cars. I had turned into oncoming traffic. There's a divider between me and the lanes I'm supposed to be in and here we are going head on and thankfully, there was this nook in the median between us and I whipped my car in and cars right by me at 50 miles an hour

and all of a sudden, I realized the guy I thought had a problem, it was actually me and that dude that dude suddenly became my best friend. He had been a savior to me. Grab your bibles, go with me to the book of John,

John chapter three, it's a passage that my guess is almost all of us have probably heard at some time before, we just didn't realize it was actually a Christmas verse. John chapter three starting in verse 16, here is what it says, for God so loved the worlds, God so loved you

And I am absolutely convinced that if you were the only person who would ever trust in Jesus, Jesus still would have gone to the cross just for you. For God so loved you that he gave his one and only son the first Christmas gift, a savior, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. We came here to honor

a baby that was born two thousand years ago. But what you need to know is that that baby grew up to be a fully grown man. And then he went into three years of ministry and he waved his arms and he said, hey, you're you're going the wrong way. You're you're missing God. And as if that wasn't enough,

it's as if he got out of the car, ran in front of the traffic knowing that it would run him over so that it wouldn't run us over. It's called the cross. It's called him dying on our behalf, a savior so that our sins could be forgiven, so that we could reconnect our souls to God. And when you get that, suddenly

saviors stop being socks and they literally become the drink that our souls

were thirsty for.

So here's my question.

Will you leave God's gift unopened again this year?

Or is this the year that socks are saviors? And then you finally realize, hey, this thing that's been missing, this ache that I've had, this brokenness that I feel, I can't fix that, but a savior can. And the incredible, incredible thing is it's as simple as opening the gift. The bible said to everyone who will believe,

they receive the gift. So let's do this. Let's bow our heads together And if you're here and suddenly socks aren't socks anymore, and suddenly you come to a moment that says that incredible incredible gift that God gave two thousand years ago, a savior, was for me. And what the angel said could be true, great joy,

and all that's required is that I open God's gift. So if you're here and you've been thinking to yourself, you know what, maybe maybe I've missed out. Maybe I've misunderstood and I'm ready. I'm ready for a savior. I'm ready for my soul to reconnect with God. I'm ready to pray and believe. And

if that's you with nobody else looking around, this is just you and me, I'm gonna ask you the just slip up your hand and say, you know what? I think I need to pray that prayer. I think that's me. Good for you. Good for you. Who else? Good. Good. Good. Good for you. Thank you.

Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna pray a real simple prayer. You can pray it quietly in your heart with me. That prayer goes something like this. Dear Lord Jesus,

I thought you were socks. I I wasn't sure what I was gonna do with you or or if I really even needed you. But suddenly, realized that the thing that's been missing, the hollow spot within my heart and my soul,

It was the need for a savior. It was the need to reconnect with God. And so I'm just asking you, Jesus, would you come into my life? Would you forgive me for my disobedience? Would you wash away my sins? Would you restore my soul to God? And I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. If

you prayed that prayer, I'm gonna ask you to do something in just a moment that's a little bit bold. Jesus said this while he was on earth. If you will confess me before men, I'll confess you before my father in heaven. And so in just a moment, I'm gonna ask you to have the courage that if you prayed that prayer,

I'm gonna count to three and I'm gonna ask you just to stand to say, hey, I opened the present. I I traded in socks for a savior this year. So here we go. I'm gonna count to three, and then I want you to stand. Ready? One, two, three, stand if you prayed that prayer. Good for you. Good for you. Good for you. Good for you.

I love that Good good deal you you can you can sit back down You know why we applauded because we opened up the socks too and we found great joy in a savior. Hey, if you prayed that prayer, here's here's what I'm gonna ask you to do two things for me. One is if you take your cell phone out and text the word Jesus to 21999.

Just say, hey, I made that prayer. I made that decision. I opened the gift Jesus to 21999. Second thing, if you prayed that prayer, you may not have even stood. You might have thought, well, it just feels awkward, but I prayed the prayer.

When you head out on the patio, when you came in, you probably saw these huge letters, and they spell the word life.

And I'm gonna encourage you, go to the letters. There's some baskets at the bottom. They've got light bulbs in them. If you prayed that prayer, take one of those light bulbs, just screw it in until that light lights up. Kind of your statement that says, man, there's a light in my life right now. It's a savior

who reconnects me with God. And guys, if you came with somebody, take them with you. They'll be thrilled to do that. And don't let this be a Christmas thing. Let it be the rest of your life thing.

Start coming to church on a regular basis. Start hanging around other Christians who are chasing after your Jesus. I promise you, it will be great joy. For those of us in the room that you've already opened the gift from God, you've already encountered a savior,

We gave you these old tea lights as you came in, and I I would just like for you as a testimony that says, man, I've opened my gift to just light it up and say, hey, I know that socks are actually a savior and I'll tell we're gonna sing two more songs of just worship before we take off.

Can you stand and hold up those candles?

Well, Merry Christmas, Cornerstone. Have you guys enjoyed the service so far? Come on. Have you guys enjoyed the service so far? Can we end this with some joy in celebrating King Jesus? Come on. Can we end this with some joy? If you love the name of Jesus, put those hands together. Come on.

Come on.

On. Sing it out. One voice.

Come on. And wonders of his love.

The We're gonna name of We're We're name name