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The Premise and Promise of Christmas | Christmas Eve Message

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie
The Truth Network Radio
December 24, 2024 6:47 pm

The Premise and Promise of Christmas | Christmas Eve Message

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie

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December 24, 2024 6:47 pm

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given…” Celebrate our Savior with Pastor Greg Laurie's special message from Isaiah 9:6.

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A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.

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This new year I want to invite you to be a part of what God is doing here at Harvest. We have some great plans in store and I want to encourage you to invest in what we are doing. And by the way, whatever you give will be doubled thanks to our year-end match fund. So help us continue to reach unexpected people in unexpected places with an unexpected message. The message of the gospel through our evangelistic events and radio, television, online media, Harvest Plus and the list goes on. We want to seek to fulfill the great commission and we can do it together.

So thanks for whatever you can do. Let's pray together. Lord on this Christmas Eve of 2024 we're thankful to be here.

We think of loved ones that may have been with us last year or the year before that are now celebrating Christmas in Your presence. But Lord we are thankful for this moment where we reflect back on the birth of Jesus Christ and how it changed human history but how it changed our lives individually as well. So we ask You to bless this time as we open Your Word and reflect on the greatest story ever told. Speak to us from Your Word we ask. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You can all be seated. Merry Christmas. Feliz Navidad. Mele Kalikimaka. For those over in Maui. Hello Harvest Orange County. Harvest Maui. All of you watching at Harvest at Home welcome. Ok so before I dive into my message you can grab your Bible and churn there.

It will be Isaiah 9 6. And the title of my message is The Premise and Promise of Christmas. The Premise and Promise of Christmas. But I want to take a little trip down memory lane. You know I went into my iPhone earlier and I just typed in the word Christmas.

And it will take all the photos that you have taken over the years at Christmas. And wow it was just incredible. So many memories. And I came across this old video that was shot 30 years ago when we did a little TV show. And I was there with Kathy and our oldest son Christopher and Jonathan who you just heard from. This is a very young Jonathan.

So check out this video. I think you will enjoy it. I wanted you to meet my family. You have never met them before. I often refer to my son Jonathan and Christopher and my wife Kathy. So they are with us here today.

And here is my son Jonathan. How old are you today buddy? Seven. Seven years old. That's right. And my wife Kathy. Don't ask how old I am.

My oldest son Christopher who is 18. That's right. Well Jonathan are you excited about Christmas this year? Yeah. What is Christmas about?

Why do we even have Christmas? It's about how Jesus was in a manger. That's right. And he was so precious that he was his only begotten son.

That's right. God's son. And we are going to talk about that a little bit later because that's God's gift to us. And we are going to talk about the ultimate gift that God gave. So that's it. So I just thought that was so sweet. He is so precious.

I want Jonathan to come out and just say it the exact same way again. And my hair. What about my hair? I was confused.

It is 30 years ago. So I call it. I have come up with my own name for what I was doing with my hair. I call it a scullet. So you know what a mullet is right? Long hair in the back.

Short on top. But I was balding. So I was doing a comb over. And don't do comb overs if you are doing them. Just stop. Because when you go like in the pool or whatever and it comes unhinged you look more like a rooster. Listen.

I speak from experience. No comb overs. But anyway I perfected the comb overs. So it was a comb over combined with the mullet.

Hence the term scullet. And that is what I want to talk to you about Christmas Eve 2024. Not really.

Ok. So yes Christmas is here. I hope you are all done with your Christmas shopping. You know we have four granddaughters and one grandson. And they are all getting older now. So it is really hard to know what to get them. So we just started writing them checks.

Am I the only one who does this? You just write them a check. And a nice card. And yesterday we had them over for a sleepover. I don't know how much longer we will be able to do that.

But they are getting older as I said. But we wrote them a card. And it was beautiful. They read out loud what was written to them. And Kathy's what she wrote was far better than what I wrote. But it was a great little moment. And we gave them all a check.

Ok. So I heard about a grandmother that decided to do the same thing. Just she was going to give checks to her grandchildren. So she wrote a card. And she just inscribed it with these words. Buy your own present this year.

Love grandma. There was a check. And she sent the cards out. And a few days later she realized she forgot to include the check.

Which gave the card a completely different meaning. So you open it up and it says buy your own present this year. Love grandma. Ah. The joys of getting older. You know one thing about Christmas is it is a marker of time. Isn't it. This is probably. I don't know if this is exactly true. But I think close. My 52nd Christmas message.

I have been doing this over 50 years. So Christmas is based on a premise and a promise. A premise and a promise. Now a premise is a foundational idea or statement on which conclusions are built. So what is the premise? Well the premise is mankind was separated from God by sin.

There was nothing they could do to reach God. So God responded to the premise with a promise. Because a promise is an assurance that something is going to happen. And a lot of it depends on who makes the promise. You know some people say I promise I will do this and you know you can't take that to the bank. But other people if they say they will do something or be somewhere you know you can depend upon it. So when God makes a promise you know that is a trustworthy source. So the essential message of Christmas is God responded to our premise with a promise.

A promise that God would right every wrong and make it possible for us to come into a relationship with Him. He would enter our world. My friend Max Lucado. Lucado I say he is my friend.

I can't pronounce his name. But Max Lucado writes these words. Quote, the manger is proof that God does not forget His promises. He stepped into our world because we couldn't step into His. I like that. The child on the manger is God's way of saying I have got this.

End quote. So imagine living in Israel before Jesus was born. If you read the news on your newspaper carved in stone or however it would be delivered in those days it was a pretty bleak scenario. Rome dominated most of the world.

Corruption was rampant. And to make things even worse they had a tyrant named Herod that had been appointed by Caesar to rule over the Jewish people. And if that was not bad enough these people had not heard from their God for 400 years. No prophets with thundering messages from heaven.

No angels with special proclamation. It just seemed like an icy silence from heaven. It reminds me of a couple that were having a disagreement. And you know when men and women disagree we have our different ways of expressing ourselves. Men will often vent and verbalize what they say. And sometimes women will utilize. Guys can do this too. But women do it maybe a little more often.

I am not sure. It is called the silent treatment. And it is really effective. So the guy had vented and the wife decided to give him the silent treatment. And this went on for two weeks of the silent treatment. And he couldn't stand it anymore. But he had a flight to catch. And he said, I need to catch a flight tomorrow.

I have to wake up at six in the morning. So make sure you wake me up at 6 a.m. And he wrote it on a note and put it on her pillow. He got up the next morning and he had missed his flight. It was 9 a.m. when he woke up.

But he looked over and found a note on his nightstand that said, it is 6 o'clock a.m. Wake up. Maybe she was taking it a little too far. Maybe Israel felt like God was giving them the silent treatment. As I said 400 years to not hear from God. But boy did the Lord make up for lost time.

He wasn't giving them the silent treatment. He was waiting for the right moment in human history. And Galatians tells us when the time was just right God sent forth His Son born of a woman made under the law to redeem those that are under the law. And now all of a sudden there was all kinds of supernatural phenomena taking place. Luke 2 13 says, the angel appeared joined by a vast host of other angels. The armies of heaven praising God saying glory to God on the highest and on earth peace among those with whom God is well pleased. Zechariah the father of John the Baptist summed it up this way, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us.

And in many ways we live in similar times where things are very dark. And we are waiting for the Lord to come back. And we are waiting for Him to come the first time.

We are waiting for Him to return again the second time. That brings us to our text. Let's look at Isaiah 9 6. Here now is the promise from God in response to the premise of their separation from Him. Familiar and powerful words. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given.

And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Now before we explore what this means I want to show you a scene from our new cartoon Christmas at the Beach featuring Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog. I know we have some kids here so I am thinking of you right now.

And I know we have some adults with short attention spans so I am thinking of you as well. So the scene you are about to see is where Ben is going to tell the Christmas story to a crowd of people gathered on the beach. And Yellow Dog was going to read Isaiah 9 6, which he was very excited about. But now along comes Hopkins the cat who is the nemesis of Yellow Dog. And we also introduce a new character named Summer our first female character.

And her voice is done by Brenley Brown. So here is Isaiah 9 6 in this cartoon. Check it out. In Isaiah 9 6, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Wow, that cat knows his Bible. It was one amazing night long ago. A young girl named Mary was given a message from an angel.

Like a text? No, the angel just appeared to her. He told her she was to have a son that would change everything and show God's love for all time. She and her husband Joseph had to take a trip far from home for the yearly census.

A census is a time where everyone is counted from their hometowns. But by the time they stopped for the night in Bethlehem, all the hotels were full. They finally had to sleep in a barn. Oh, I remember. With all the animals. Disgusting. Dude, you're an animal.

Oh yeah. But even in that humble place, in the poorest circumstances, a king was born. Shepherds came to worship this baby because they knew he would save the world.

How? What? How did they know this baby was such a big deal? Did he have a little crown? Did he glow in the dark? Nothing like that. Aw, I bet he had a little baby halo.

Not exactly. What they all knew from signs, wonders, and prophecies in the Old Testament is that this child would grow up to teach everyone about God's plan. And then he would give his very life for us. Oh, I don't like this part of the story. It's so sad.

I know, buddy. But that's why Jesus came. He died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead.

The good news is that he is alive and here with us right now. So let's read this passage again. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given.

The government will be upon his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor. The Mighty God. The Everlasting Father. The Prince of Peace.

You know how many ways these are like five beautifully wrapped packages under a tree. And each one describes an attribute of God. First of all, his name is wonderful.

That takes care of the dullness of life. The root word wonder means beyond comprehension. It is a kind of wonder that stops you in your tracks. Sometimes we use the word awesome. That's awesome. Maybe we overuse the word awesome.

You know everything can be awesome. Now if you are Gen Z you probably don't say that. You would say that's fire. Or no cap. Or that's lit. If you are Gen X you would say oh that's rad. Or that's killer. Boomers would say that's far out man. Or out of sight. Or that blows my mind.

And if you are the greatest generation you might say what a corker. Or that's swell. Right.

It's all good. Right. All those expressions give a sense of the awesomeness and greatness of God.

God is awesome. Fire. Rad. Lit. Swell.

Whatever adjective you want to use. But his name shall be called Wonderful. That is beyond comprehension. And you know there has never been a time in our history when we have seen more innovation as we are seeing right at this moment.

Technology is just exploding before our very eyes. I was in LA the other day and I saw one of those self-driving cars. Now I don't mean there was a person in it and they were being driven. There was no one in this car. And it was just driving around all in its own.

I just had to stop and like what on earth. Look at that thing. Came up to the light. Put its turning signal on. Made the turn. Ran over four people.

But still. Self-driving cars. So you have got self-driving cars. You have got robots that cook your meals.

You have rockets that take off and land themselves. Add to that streaming services. Smartphones. Social media. AI with chat.

GPT and all the rest. It almost seems like science fiction. But it is happening before our eyes. So here we are with all this tech around us and maybe we are watching TV playing a video game and texting someone and we say I am bored. Right. So there is all this progress but we are still searching. It was Bertrand Russell that once said and I quote, at least half of the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of boredom.

End quote. And I think it is because deep down inside we are hardwired for something greater. Something more. Technology is not going to satisfy it. Objects will not satisfy it.

Experiences will not satisfy it either. It is a longing for God Himself. When we were visiting our church in Maui recently I had a little bird that started showing up on my patio. He would just. There he was. He was a very cute little bird.

And kind of distinct from the other birds. So I started throwing out little pieces of bread and he would eat them and I would throw them so he would come closer to me. And then I grabbed him and I actually. That is actually a video of him. Here he comes.

He is walking right. He got closer and closer. So when he got a little closer I grabbed him and ate him. I cooked him first. No. No.

I didn't. So I even gave this little bird a nickname. He would show up every morning.

I would get him in the morning. He is literally standing there at the door waiting for me to feed him something. And I thought what kind of bird is this. So I took a picture of him. And it turns out that that little bird.

I have talked about him in sermons before but I didn't know this is who he was. He was a golden plover. So the golden plover is an amazing bird native to Hawaii. They migrate in the summer to the Aleutian Islands.

That is 1200 miles away. There the plovers meet. Lay their eggs. And the little fledglings are born. And then the adult golden plovers return to Hawaii leaving the fledglings to grow up a little. And what is amazing is these little birds who have never been to Hawaii before get together and they put little lays on them. Little tiny lays. And then ukuleles too. Little small ones. And then they make the journey to a place they have never been before.

Hawaii. It is called a homing instinct. So listen.

The next time someone calls you a bird brain take it as a compliment. But God builds that GPS into that tiny little creature and it knows where to go. And I think we have the same thing as well. A homesickness for heaven. And I think we feel it even more at Christmas. You know try as people may they cannot stop the power of Christmas. You know we have the twinkling lights. We have the music. We have all of the things that remind us of what it really is. And people we call it Xmas or say happy holidays or something else. But it is still Christmas. You know I saw this little video flipping through videos the other day of Billie Eilish who is not known for her faith at all.

In fact to the contrary. And she is standing in one of her concerts singing from her heart, Oh Holy Night. And this little crowd of people is singing with her. And I thought there is something in the power of these old Christmas songs and the power of the message of it. Try to suppress it.

You can't stop it because it is the message of Christ and it is unstoppable. So we feel it at Christmas. And we have always felt it going back to our childhood. There was something special about this holiday. And really it is not the magic of Christmas. It is the promise of Christ Himself.

That is actually what we are longing for deep inside. It is not merriment but the Messiah. Not presents under a tree but His presence in our life. And isn't that the essential message of Christmas?

You should call His name Emmanuel which means God is with us. I talked to a couple the other day last Sunday at church and they lost their daughter right around Christmas. And I remember I had talked to them earlier about this. And I said this has to be so hard for you. I bet when the first Christmas decorations go up you start feeling a dread deep down inside.

They said exactly. Well it is the happiest time of the year for everybody. It is a reminder of an anniversary of the death of their daughter. And I said I want you to just remember that the real message of Christmas is not shopping and it is not all the things that we get caught up in. The message is God is with you.

And God is with you right now in this holiday season. Because I know I am talking to someone that is having a really hard time. And you have got family problems. Families get so messed up don't they?

And we are supposed to get together with our families and be happy? And I am not talking about your immediate family. It might be your extended family. But whatever it is there can be a lot of added stress and difficulty in this time of the year. And you might be suffering from something else. It might be a family problem. It might be a health problem. It might be a financial problem.

It might be something else. But remember the message is not let us shop. It is let us worship. And you are not alone. And God is with you.

Remember that this Christmas Eve. His name is wonderful. That takes care of the dullness of life. His name is counselor. That takes care of the decisions of life. Psalm 73 24 says, You will guide me with your counsel.

Think about that. The Almighty God the Creator of the universe wants to give personal counsel to you. You know so many people are looking for direction in their life from all the wrong places. Some will pour out their troubles to the bartender at the local dive. Others will turn to the Internet.

Ask questions from Google. And now chat GPT. Others will turn to astrologers. And by the way astrology is making a huge comeback right now.

Especially among young people. Looking for direction from someone or something when the Almighty God the Creator of the universe has said, I want to be your counselor. I know it has been said before and it seems like a cliche but it is really true. It has been said God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

That is true. God does love you. And He wants to reveal His will to you. We are told over in the book of James, If any man likes wisdom let him ask of God who will give generously. So He is wonderful. He is counselor. He is mighty God.

That takes care of the demands of life. It is so incredible that God Almighty came to us as an infant. The infinite became an infant. Deity in diapers.

God among us in that little manger of Bethlehem. And this all powerful all knowing God wants to release His power into your life. So whatever you are facing He has more than enough power to meet your need.

You just need to reach out to Him. And you know it is a funny thing because we tend to like more power. If you are a guy you probably want more horsepower.

And you will never use it. But you just like to brag about it. I looked it up and thought what car has the most horsepower. Maybe this is not the right answer but it is supposedly the Bugatti Van I think it is called has over 1200 horsepower. Where are you going to use 1200 horsepower? But it is something to brag about.

And that is what guys like to do. Oh I can lift this much. I have that much power. And if you are a nerd I have this much computer power.

Whatever. We always want more power. But God says, Jesus said, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. All the power you need is in Christ. And He will give you the power to live this Christian life. You know sometimes people say it is hard to be a Christian.

Oh come on that is not true. It is impossible to be a Christian. It is impossible in your own strength. You are going to fall short.

I am going to fall short. But yet the apostle Paul said I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So His name is called wonderful.

Counselor. The mighty God. The everlasting Father.

That takes care of the future of life. I don't know about you but maybe you grew up without a Father on earth. So it is really good to know you have a Father in heaven. Remember Jesus in what we call the Lord's Prayer taught us to pray our Father who art in heaven.

Hallelujah would be your name. Jesus told a story. We often call it the parable of the prodigal son.

I don't know why. The Bible doesn't call it that. It can maybe be more accurately described as the parable of the loving Father. But Jesus told the story to show us what God is like. What is God like? According to Jesus He is like a father who had two sons. He said a certain father had two sons.

And you know the story. One of the sons went into a far country, wasted his inheritance on craziness and partying and excess and one day came to his senses and returned to his father and his father welcomed him and threw his arms around him and said this my son who is dead is alive again. What is God like? God is like a father who misses you when you are away from Him. Some people envision God as angry. He is like Scrooge. He is against everything that you want to make you happy in life.

Nothing could be further from the truth. God is not mad at you. God is mad about you. And God loves you and longs for a relationship with you and your Father in heaven will more than compensate for your lack of a father on earth if that is the case. Jesus said fear not little flock it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Then He says He is the prince of peace.

I love this. This takes care of the disturbances of life. You know life is filled with storms. The things that we face. The hardships we go through.

The trials we have to endure. But it says He can be our prince of peace. The Bible promises a peace that passes all human understanding. And I wonder on this Christmas Eve of 2024 if you have this peace in your life.

If you have this relationship with God. I don't know what you are thinking about right now. Some of you who are younger maybe are hoping you will get what you want for Christmas. You are hoping it will be waiting for you under the tree tonight or tomorrow morning depending on when you open your presents. Or maybe you know because you found it. It wasn't hidden as well as your parents thought. Or your husbands are hoping your wife got you what you wanted her to get you.

Or your wives are hoping your husband will take the hint you gave to him. I heard about a couple that were at the mall and they decided to separate for a little bit. He said you go ahead and shop and I will call you in a little while. And so he didn't call her and she called him and said where are you? He said oh. Remember that jewelry store we went to 10 years ago and there is that beautiful diamond bracelet. She said yeah. And remember how I said when I made more money I would buy that for you one day. She said yeah. He said yeah I am at the donut store right next to that.

I think he deserves a silent treatment now. It is sometimes guys just don't get the hint. That is just the way we roll. But God knows exactly what you need. And God has exactly what you need. And my prayer for you tonight well it is really the afternoon but it is kind of tonight.

We will just pretend it is night. But what He has for you is greater than any object, any gift, any thing and really anyone. Because deep down inside we are all just longing for Jesus. I mentioned those golden plovers.

You know they have this pre-wired in them. The Bible says God has set eternity in our hearts. And I wonder if you have this relationship with Him. Maybe you attend Harvest. This is your home church and we are glad you are here. Maybe you come here every now and then. Maybe you have never been here before. You are a guest of someone that attends.

Or maybe you just heard about this service and you showed up. But what I want to say to you is you can have a relationship with this God. You know Jesus was a historical figure.

That is an undeniable fact. But He came with a purpose and it was alluded to in that cartoon. He came here to die on the cross for our sin. And then rise again from the dead because He wants a relationship with you. And Jesus says, Behold I stand at the door and I knock and if you will hear My voice and open the door I will come in.

Have you asked Him to come into your life yet? Do you know that your sin is forgiven? Let's say this was your last Christmas on this earth. And this is going to be the year you leave this life and go into the afterlife. Do you have the absolute assurance that you would go to heaven?

And if not wouldn't you like to have that? See if you receive God's gift of eternal life this will be the greatest Christmas of your life. And He is only a prayer away.

You just need you just need to receive it. Jesus says, Behold I stand at the door. Excuse me. He didn't clear His throat. Let me finish what He said. That is implied in the Greek. He cleared His throat.

Not really. No He said, Behold I stand at the door and I knock and if you will hear My voice and open the door I will come in. Christ is ready to come into your life right now and be your Savior and your Lord and you will see how wonderful He is. He will be your counselor. He will be your mighty God. He will be your everlasting Father.

He will be your Prince of Peace. But you must say, Lord I want you to come into my life now. If you haven't done that yet I am going to pray a prayer. And I am going to ask if you want Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin and you want to have peace with God and experience the peace of God and know with assurance that you go to heaven when you die I want you to pray this prayer with me if you want that tonight.

Let's all bow our heads. Father I thank You for everyone that is here and everyone that is watching wherever they are. If they don't have this relationship with You let it begin tonight. Let it start right now as they pray and receive You into their hearts. Now when our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we are praying together if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life.

If you want Him to forgive you of your sin. If you want to know that you will go to heaven when you die I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me wherever you are. Just pray these words of me if you would. Pray Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner but I know that You are the Savior who was born in that manger 2,000 years ago and died on the cross and rose again from the dead. Now I choose to follow You from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord. As my God and my friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I ask this. Amen. God bless you that just prayed that prayer. And Merry Christmas.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-12-24 20:07:54 / 2024-12-24 20:20:26 / 13

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