Christmas at DPAC: 2014

Well, I've been back there trying to figure out how to transition from that moment to this one. Hank told me what they were planning on doing right before I came out, and I said, man, are you sure that you're up to that? So you're from South Georgia, and you're the whitest kid that I know.

You think you can pull that off? And so he's been watching Eminem tapes for the last couple of months, and I think he did all right. What do you guys think? Hank actually wrote and composed and arranged that entire thing, so I'm pretty grateful. Well, to start out, I want to acknowledge a few groups that are here with us this afternoon evening. The first is there is a group of you who thought that you were coming to a quiet, reflective Christmas Eve service where we held hands and drank hot cocoa and sang Go Tell It on the Mountain, and I want to sincerely apologize to you.

Second, there is a group of you that are here that haven't been in any kind of church setting in quite some time, maybe never. And I want to acknowledge that I know it took a lot for you to work up the motivation and the courage to actually come this afternoon, and I just want to recognize that and applaud that, and I'll tell you how much we appreciate the fact that you showed the courage to come here. But I want us all together to think about a third group, and that is a very huge group, who got here hours before most of us did to set up, to keep kids, to direct cars.

Of course, I'm talking about our volunteers. I want you to know that it took most of them just as much for them to get going as it did for you to get out here in an unfamiliar setting, and most of them, including many of the ones here on stage, do it for free. This is my job. This is my job. It's like I tell our church all the time, I am a professional Christian, which means I get paid to be good. But these people, they are good for nothing. And so, if you think about it, if you think about it on the way out, give them a high five, a hug, a chest bump, slip them a tip, maybe a gift card some I gave you at Christmas you know you're not going to use, you just want to pass it on to them, whatever. But could we just put our hands together and thank this group.

We call them volunteers. Behold. Behold is a key word in the Christmas story. Every single time an angel shows up in one of the Christmas narratives, the angel says two different things.

The first thing is fear not, and the second thing is always behold. Matthew 123, the angel Gabriel says to Joseph, fear not for behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son and you will call his name Immanuel. The angel Gabriel in the Gospel of Luke shows up to Mary and says, fear not for behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will call his name Jesus. Later, that same angel would appear to the shepherds, Luke 2 11, and say, fear not for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior which is Christ the Lord. The repetition of those two words highlights for us the primary element of the Christmas message.

First, fear not. The birth of Jesus is going to address our most primal fears and then behold. Behold means watch.

Behold means there's something that I need you to see. The Christmas story is primarily about God doing something for us that he wants us to watch. That second thing, behold, is what I want to talk about for just a few minutes with you here this afternoon because it is the point, I believe, where most people, even people that have been in church most of their lives, misunderstand the message of Jesus. You see, most of us think that the primary message from God to us is do this or become this, be more loving, help promote peace on earth. But the primary message of Christmas is not do or become or behave, it is behold. God's salvation of the human race, his rescue plan for us, was not about him giving us a list of things that he wanted us to do for him. It was about him doing something for us that we could not do for ourselves and telling us to behold it and to believe it. You see, that's really difficult for most people because we grow up thinking that our acceptance is based on how well we do. So most people, when it comes to God, have in their minds some version of in heaven there being a gigantic scale. And on the scale, you've got your bad works on one side and you've got your good works on the other side and the way God's going to evaluate us is if you've got more good things than bad things, then he'll probably let you into heaven.

Of course, we just reinforce that idea with our kids at Christmas time. Santa Claus is watching. He's making a list. He's checking it twice. He's going to find out if you've been naughty or nice. And then on Christmas morning, he's going to give you based on what you deserve or the little tradition now we have with the elf on the shelf.

So no room you can be in. Is he not watching? That elf might be there writing down what you do. It's like Santa's NSA. And on Christmas morning, you're going to get exactly what you deserve. Well, that's also how many people begin to think about God.

They think that he is watching us and making a list. And then on Judgment Day, he's going to give us exactly what we deserve. But the real Christmas story is not about you being good and God watching you and making a list and then rewarding or punishing you. The real Christmas story is about God acting to save you and telling you to behold and to believe that.

Here's why. And this might be the primary theme of the entire Bible. And if I could say this, the most offensive part of the Bible.

You and I simply cannot save ourselves. The Apostle Paul would say in the book of Ephesians that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Sins, that word simply means that you and I have chosen to do what we want to do instead of what God wants us to do. We wanted to be in charge, not him.

Trespasses means that if God's laws got in the way of what we wanted, then we were willing to bend or break that law. Dead means that we're hopeless. Dead men cannot improve themselves. Dead men cannot get educated. Dead men cannot turn a new leaf. Spiritually, Paul says, you and I are dead.

We are helpless. So salvation had to come from outside of us as a gift that we receive, not from inside of us as an accomplishment that we attain or a goodness or a moral strength that we work up from within ourselves. The Bible gives us a great picture of this in the Old Testament. The children of Israel, after Christian Baal had led them out of Egypt through the Red Sea, the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for a while and they doubted God.

They began to disobey God and so it was an act of punishment. God sent in a, we don't know what to call, what do you call a group of snakes? It's not like a flock of snakes. In between two of the services, we actually looked it up on Google and we typed in, what do you call a group of snakes?

And I kid you not, the answer came back, the government. So I don't know what you call it, but God sent in a flock of snakes, a den of snakes, a brood of snakes, I don't know. But God sent in this group of snakes that bit many of the children of Israel, it was very excruciating.

The bite caused severe fiery pain and many of the children of Israel began to die. And so they called out on God to have mercy and God told Moses, I want you to make an image like one of these serpents out of bronze and I want you to put it on top of a pole and then I want you to take that pole and put it on the highest hill that you can find and you tell the children of Israel who are dying that if they will go and if they will behold and if they will believe that I can heal them as they behold this serpent suspended on the pole, my healing will come into them. Jesus would say in John chapter 3 that this was the picture of how he would save us. That he, like that bronze serpent, would be suspended on a cross and that those who came and looked to him believing that God would forgive their sins and heal this disease that was inside of them that was there because of their sin, that God would let his healing come from that cross the same way the healing came from that bronze serpent on a pole. The disease that you and I had was called sin.

It is a disease that is fatal, it killed us, we are spiritually dead and it is as we look to God in faith and behold the sacrifice that was given for us that God's forgiveness and power of new life comes into us. Jesus did not make a list and check it twice. He took our sin and he nailed it to his cross and he never looked at it again and he said to us behold and believe and as you behold and believe you will be saved.

So here is my question for you. Behold, do you recognize that you need to be saved? Do you recognize that when Jesus came he was coming for you? He was coming to rescue you because you were helpless? He was coming to you because you were spiritually dead and could not save yourself? Do you recognize that he is the only one who can save you? Most of us perceive that there is something wrong in our relationship with God.

We might not know how to verbalize it but we are uneasy in how we relate to the Almighty and so we are always trying to find ways to tip the scales in our favor. The place that most of us turn is good works, good works. Recently I read this interview with Warren Buffet who recently donated, get this, 85% of his $44 billion to charity. It was an astoundingly generous act. Here is what he said in the interview and they asked him why he did it. He said and I quote, because there is more than one way to get to heaven though this is a great way.

Now we all have a way. You may not have $44 billion that you are trying to leverage toward that but maybe it is being a good person. Maybe it is being a good husband or a good dad. Maybe it is going to church more than you have been. Maybe it is just being better than the next guy with the hope that if God grades on the curve then as long as you are in the upper 30 or 40% then he will probably let you in. A lot of times we try to gain God's acceptance by making promises at an event like this one. We come and we say, God I am going to be better.

I am going to be a better dad. I am going to get back in church and we think that because of these promises that we are making that God will accept us because of that. I call that trying to buy God's acceptance on credit.

You know it is like, hey I want you to accept me based on what I am going to do here in the future. We are not saved. Scripture says by what we have done we are not saved by what we promised to do.

We are saved by beholding and trusting what he has done. A lot of people say, well you know as long as you love people and you are sincere then God will accept you. But the angel said, behold it is not the love you show that saves you. It is the love shown to you that saves you. So behold it, you won't find salvation by trying to become loving.

You will only find it by beholding and receiving the love that was given to you. It is why we say that the gospel is not fundamentally good advice. The gospel is good news. It is not instructions about how you ought to live as much as it is a message of what God did to rescue you that you could not do for yourself. That he said, behold look and live. You say, well does God not care about us becoming good and loving?

Well of course he does. But he doesn't want us doing those things just to earn our way to heaven. Because that is not really love when you are doing something just to get by your entry into heaven.

That is really selfishness. He wants us to become loving people in our hearts. To become people who overflow with love like he does. And the only way that we will ever have that kind of healing in our soul is by beholding and worshipping the love of God given for us in the cross.

Earlier this year I read a book by Malcolm Gladwell called David and Goliath in which he describes toward the beginning of the book how he returned to faith. He said the most remarkable thing happened as I was researching stories for this book. He said I was trying to find people that had overcome insurmountable odds because I wanted to find if there was some common characteristic that gave them the ability to overcome these things. He said in the course of my research I came across a couple named Cliff and Wilma Dirksen. Thirty years ago their teenage daughter Candace disappeared one day after school. When they figured out she was gone the city launched the largest manhunt in its history. And after looking for her for several days they finally found her.

She had been dead for several days at this point. The reporters asked Cliff and Wilma Dirksen after they found their teenage daughter. They said if we could figure out who did this what would you say to the person who did this to your daughter Candace? Cliff, the dad, spoke up first and he said the first thing I would want to share with them is that there seems to be a love that is missing in their lives that has added hope and definition to ours that the absence of this love led them to do those things and we would want them to know about that love that has shaped and changed us.

His wife Wilma broke in and said yes. Our primary concern has been to find Candace but now that we know what's happened to her she said my desire would be to tell them that we've all done something dreadful in our lives or at least we felt the urge to. But we have found, Cliff and I have found a love that not only forgave us, it changed us and we know that this love could extend to that person too. She said I wouldn't be honest if I told you that I forgive the person right now but I know that I want to and I know that by God's help I can but the main thing I would want them to know is there is a love that saves and transforms. Malcolm Gladwell writes, he said I wanted to know where the Dirksons found the strength to say those things. After something so tragic as the death of their daughter Cliff and Dirksen could talk about sharing his love with the killer and Wilma could stand up and say we've all done something dreadful in our lives or felt the urge to.

Where do two people find the power to forgive in a moment like that one? His answer essentially is the Christmas story. He said beholding the love of God given to you in the Gospel is what makes you into a person who not only loves God but you begin to overflow with love to others which is what God has always wanted from us to be a people that are filled with love toward Him and love toward our fellow human beings. So the angel declares, Behold! Behold the love of God that is given to you.

This is the love from which healing and salvation comes which is the last thing that I want to share with you. I want you to hear this word for what it is as an urgent command from a heavenly messenger. The angel did not show up with a suggestion. The angel did not show up with a heartwarming speech or some good stories.

The angel did not show up with a Hallmark card. The angel showed up with a command, Behold! It's kind of like when a meteorologist tells you that a terrible storm is coming your direction. You know meteorologists have gotten a lot better since I was a kid I feel like. I feel like when I was a kid they'd just kind of walk out and be like, I think it might rain today.

My joint hurts. But now they have these super doppler weather thingies and they're like, you know, a storm just left Briar Creek traveling at 48.7 miles an hour. It's headed east. If you live in Nightdale, there are funnel clouds headed your direction and you have 4 minutes and 19 seconds before a tornado rips through your neighborhood. Now, if you're in Nightdale and you hear that meteorologist say that, what do you do at that point?

That's not the time that you flip back over to the Lifetime channel or HGTV and catch the end of your favorite show. You head for the bathtub with a mattress and you cover yourself and your family in that place because he's given you not a suggestion. He or she has given you essentially a command. This angel is your meteorologist. This angel says to you, Behold!

Behold, there is a storm coming. God's wrath is revealed from heaven against our sin. His judgment is coming. Behold how helpless you were when Jesus came to rescue you. Behold how tenderly he came. Behold how much he suffered to pay the penalty for your sin. Behold him on the cross praying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, talking about your sin. Behold him saying, It is finished, talking about the payment for your sin. Behold how God made him who knew no sin to become sin for you so that you could be made the righteousness of God in him. Behold the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we could be called the children of God.

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Salvation is not something that you do for God by becoming a better person. It is something he did for you that you could not do for yourself when he took the punishment of your sin. He died in your place and he said, I am the one suspended between heaven and earth for you.

You cannot save yourself, but if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, Romans 10, 9, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. You look at me and you're saying, Are you telling me? Are you telling me that all I have to do is behold to be saved?

Absolutely, that's what I'm telling you. In fact, imagine you were in Israel, the children of Israel, when the snakes had come through and they bit one of your friends and your friend is dying and you're trying to get to them to say, Just look, just come to the place and look, look and behold and you will live. Salvation flows from the top of that hill. What I am telling you is like I was in the position of you as that friend where I come to you and I say salvation is there. Jesus Christ took your place. God so loved you that he gave his only son to die in your place for your sin so that if you would look and behold and live, you would be saved. What that look says is you come and you acknowledge I have the disease, the diseases of my own making. I've chosen to go my own way. You acknowledge that Jesus Christ was the substitute for sin given for you. You acknowledge that he was right and you were wrong. You acknowledge that his salvation has been given and you look and you behold and as you behold, you live.

Have you ever done that? I don't want you to disregard this. I don't want you to come and get a heartwarming message. I want you to see the Savior whose salvation flows from him. If you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that man believes into righteousness and it is with the mouth that confession is made into salvation. For the same Lord is Lord over the Jew and the Greek and the black and the white and the rich and the poor and the young and the old and the irreligious and the religious.

He has mercy for all who call upon him for whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That applies to you. Why don't you bow your heads with me if you would. Have you ever looked in faith to Jesus Christ given for you because you were helpless?

You were helpless. Are you willing to acknowledge right now I have the disease of sin? Are you willing to acknowledge that he is right and you are wrong? Are you willing to surrender your life to him? And are you willing right now to call out upon him and say, Lord Jesus, save me? Say it in your own words, Lord Jesus, I surrender to you. Lord Jesus, in my mind's eye I am looking at the cross and I'm saying, Lord Jesus, let this forgiveness and this spiritual healing flow into me.

Lord Jesus, save me. Father, I pray for all those who in this moment, friends and family of ours, who just crossed from death into life. I thank you for bringing them here. I thank you, God, for a chance to hear and understand this message.

And God, I pray that this moment would become the greatest moment of their lives, that they would start a whole new journey of discipleship from this moment. God, thank you for bringing them here. Thank you for bringing them here.

God, thank you for bringing them here. Thank you for being the Lamb of God who died in our place to take our sin. We worship you, Lord Jesus. We behold and we love and we worship. I pray in Jesus' name. Jesus' name.