Skip to content Stand Alone Messages: Christmas Eve 2022 Dec 25 · 25 min ...more
Stand Alone Messages: Christmas Eve 2022
December 25, 2022 · 25 min
Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church December 25, 2022 · 25 min · BRAVE Church
Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:01 You know, it's wonderful to gather into the house of the Lord on Christmas Eve and have services and celebrate his great name and worship him. This is the second time I've gotten to do it today. It's been an incredible0:12 time. And to hear a very familiar story in Luke chapter 2. By show of hands, how many have heard that story before? I mean, here here it is. The the shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night. I0:23 mean, they're just ordinary guys. I mean, they're known as the village idiot so to speak and here they are and they gather together but this night's gonna be different. It's gonna be unlike any other because an angel of0:35 the Lord is going to appear and the glory of the Lord is gonna show around them and they're gonna be absolutely terrified. The angel, this messenger is gonna speak to them, give them the0:47 word that the son of God has been born in Bethlehem and then they're gonna hurry off and go see this 1 that the angels talked about and they're gonna realize that every single thing that the angel has told them0:59 is exactly true in the same way. And they're gonna respond with such incredible delight that they're not gonna be able to keep it to themselves, but they're gonna go from there and begin to tell others. But as I read1:10 this story and as I read anything in the word of God that story is not just for the shepherds that were out in their fields but that story has significance for me and you. Because every time that the word of God is read,1:20 every time that the word of God faithfully proclaimed, every time the word of God is studied, that it is God who is speaking to us. That night God chose a messenger, an angel, an angelic being that left and departed1:32 heaven and came down and talked to a group of shepherds. But here's what I want to talk to you about tonight. This Christmas Eve, how do you respond when you hear the voice of the Lord? What do you do1:44 when you hear the voice of the Lord? I want to give you 3 things that you can do every time that you hear God's voice and the first 1 is this, do not be afraid. Do not be1:56 afraid. It's interesting that in this story and in pretty much every story in the Bible where an angel shows up, 1 of the first words out of the mouth of that angel is, do not fear or do2:07 not be afraid. That's interesting. There's myriads of angels all around the throne of God. 1 gets dispensed to give this specific message to some shepherds in Bethlehem on the night that Jesus2:19 was born. And the first thing the angel needs to say when the angel shows up after leaving the throne of God is don't be afraid. Why? Because even the angels that worship around the2:31 throne of God are terrifying. When Mary sees an angel the angel comes her said do not fear. Even though you haven't been with a man you're gonna give birth to the savior of the world. Even2:43 when Joseph is told to take Mary as his wife even though he knows that she's pregnant and he's not the father and angel shows up and says do not fear. Why? Because we shouldn't fear when we2:55 hear the word of the Lord. Oftentimes when we talk about the Bible or we talk about things going on in church there's a fear factor that goes off And I know it's true for many of you that are here today. I mean, for some3:05 of you, you've been looking forward to Christmas Eve services for a while. You've been inviting your friends. Some of you there are the friends that they invited and you don't wanna be here, and I know that. Right? I see3:16 the tracks and skid marks in the snow out there like I don't really wanna come in here. But what happens is when we get into a church service like this and the word of God is open and the story is told, fear can go off3:27 in our heart. And we won't tell people that we're afraid and we won't tell people that we're scared to hear this and we won't tell people things like that. We'll say, well, we're just not that interested and fear gets3:38 masked. And so we come in and every time we hear the word of Lord, we're really terrified deep down because maybe there is truth to this and maybe I do need to hear it but I'm just not ready for it. And so we put up all3:49 sorts of guards all around us because deep down inside we're fearful. And people may just think we're quiet but there's a lot more going on on the inside. It reminds me of the story of the4:01 couple that had been married for 60 years and the husband was known as a super godly man. He always was affirming of his wife. He never said anything to her. Was never short with her. Never4:13 impatient with her and in a Sunday school class 1 Sunday some of the younger men in the church said, hey what is your secret? How come it is you are so godly? You're always so quiet around her. I mean you let4:24 her lead. You let her do all these things and he said, well the day we got married we left the church in a horse and buggy and when we were leaving and we were going the horse stopped4:37 and my wife said I'll take care of this and she got out of the car and went up to the horse and she looked the horse in the eye and said that's 1. And then she came back and sat down by me. Well sure enough as we4:47 continued on the horse stopped again about a half mile down the road. She said, got this. She got out, went up to the horse and she said, that's 2. Well as we went on, we went about another mile and the horse stopped4:59 for the third time. She's like, I've got this and she went out walked in front right by the horse pulled out a revolver and shot the horse dead. She felt a lot like we're feeling right now. I mean the guy was saying5:11 this and she got back into the carriage and he looked at her. He said, honey you can't do that to a horse that's innocent and she looked at me and said, That's 1. So5:25 sometimes we're silent when we're really fearful on the inside. Right. Here's the reality. The angel said do not be afraid why for I bring you good news of a great joy5:36 for all the people front to you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord. The reason you don't need to be afraid is because this message was not only for the shepherds. This message is for5:46 every single human being on the planet that's ever been born. God loves humanity. More importantly and personally God loves you. God loves you. Don't be afraid of the message of the5:58 Bible. The whole message of the Bible is God's love for humankind. The Bible says in John 3 16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believed in him would not perish but have eternal6:09 life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. What is God's heart for the world? God loves the world. See, have people ask questions6:21 all the time. What would God think if he came to the world? I mean, what would he think of this place? He's already been and he's coming back. And when you study the life of Jesus Christ, who you're studying is6:33 God in flesh and who he is. So we gotta ask the question, if I'm not to be afraid because it's good news, well, what's good news? Good news are those things that are so good you6:45 just can't keep them inside. When it comes to athletics, for those of you that are hockey fans, when the abs won the Stanley Cup last year, you were excited. You didn't keep it inside. When the broncos won Super Bowl6:56 50, over 1000000 people gathered downtown to celebrate the good news of the victory that they had. When people get engaged or somebody's gonna have their first child, there's good news. We don't7:08 keep it inside. The Bible is good news of great joy for who? For all people. You know what that means it's for? It's for you. You may have thought you were just being dragged by family or friends. You may7:20 have shown up here accidentally. You thought, but I got news for you. God wanted you to be here today because he wanted you to know that he has a great love for you and he always has. The bible7:32 says that he's the 1 that created you in your mother's womb, that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. He made no 1 else like you. In the same way, there's no 2 snowflakes that are alike or no 2 fingerprints that are7:44 alike. There's no 2 human beings that are exactly alike. He made you just the way you are and he loves you. Do not be afraid. It's good news. That's what the angel tells us. It's good news of great joy that shall7:55 be to all the people. Well, what's the second way we should respond? If I'm to respond, I don't want to be afraid. What do I need to respond like? Second is this. Believe the message. Believe the message. Believe the8:07 truth that's being dispensed and the truth that's being dispensed is that the Lord saves. That Jesus Christ is Lord. You say, that doesn't sound like that good of news because I didn't know that I needed a8:18 savior. Well you do. That's what the Bible points out from start to finish. See the Bible tells us this, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Sin is not just that you've8:30 done bad things. Sin is the fact that you are a bad thing that has had symptoms of doing bad things and the reason that you have that DNA is that you caught it from your parents who caught it from their parents who8:42 caught it from their parents because ever since Adam and Eve were in the garden when God created a perfect world with mankind where there was no sin and God gave them instructions and said, choose whatever you want. Do8:53 whatever you wanna do. It's all good. Any choice you make is good. Although there's 1 I don't want you to do. Don't eat off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. On the day you eat off that tree, dying you will9:01 die. And they made it about 6 verses in our bible. Like, well, why can't I eat it? And why can't I do this? And I wanna be like God and I wanna be able to decide. And they ate the fruit and sin entered the world and the9:13 g rated version of conception, sinner a and sinner b conceive and you get sinlings and you're part of that group. That's why for those of you that are getting ready and you have your first child and you think,9:25 man, this child is marvelous and there's no child like this and this child's beautiful and this child's smarter than any other child and this child's wonderful until you get him home and you think this child is so9:37 selfish and self centered and all they think about is their own needs and what they want. Why? Because they have the virus. You say, well that doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Well it is because the wages of9:49 sin is death. See what you earn for that sin is death and even if you said well I didn't mean to be born this way. Nobody asked me to be born. God created you in such a way and you have a10:01 track record that demonstrates that you've sinned in all sorts of different ways. I mean look around the room. Every single person that you see is a sinner. Every single person has a resume of sin and here's the result10:11 of the sin. You will die. It's a guarantee. Religious people die. Irreligious people die. Men die. Women die. Boys die. Girls die. We don't get to pick the date of our death but the fact is10:23 we're gonna die. Well why? Because sin entered the world. God never intended it to be that way. That's why if you've ever gone to a funeral and I've officiated many, it's always a perversion as to what God10:34 intended. God created human beings to be in relationship with him. We're the ones that went the other way. So then what's the message? Well, God had a plan to rescue us. God had a10:46 plan to take care of our sin. Sin had a punishment. The punishment is death. The only 1 that could pay the punishment would be God himself. So God sent his son to be the savior of the world. So what the angel is10:58 announcing to the shepherds is the long awaited Messiah, the 1 that's willing to forgive all your sins. He's just been born. The king came. He's in a manger. You'll find him wrapped in swaddling11:09 clothes. Go see it for yourself. And there's such a buzz in heaven on that night that even after the angel gives the message, it's almost as if you hear myriads or millions of angels saying, God, we wanna go11:21 tell them too. We wanna praise you for being willing to save the human race. And so myriads of angels show up glorifying and praising God and saying peace to those that he is pleased11:33 with. How many could use a little more peace in your life? I'm not talking about change of circumstances. I'm talking about that deep inner peace that no matter what you're going through you know this that this life is11:45 temporary. The next life is forever. Believe the message. Believe the message. It's important that you do because the bible says that the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in11:57 Christ Jesus. And so often I know that when people come into church especially on a Christmas Eve service it's this. Hey. Keep it upbeat. Keep it fresh. Make the music good. Tell us what we wanna hear and send us home.12:09 I I know that's true but I think that would be spiritual malpractice on my part to do that. I mean what kind of doctor do you want to go to? Do you want to go to a doctor that diagnoses you with cancer but is such a nice12:20 doctor that he would never tell you? That he would look you in the eye and he would say listen everything looks good from here. You know what all the best knowing that you're gonna die in 2 months or would you rather go12:32 to the doctor that says I love you enough to tell you that you've been diagnosed with cancer and it looks bleak but there are some things that we can do and I'd like to start being very aggressive for that treatment. Who12:43 would you want to go see? I'd want to go see the latter and so would you. What kind of pastor do you want? You want somebody who's gonna tickle your ears and tell you, hey you're all going to heaven. Don't worry about12:53 it. When you're not, there are a lot of people in this room that are already dead in their transgressions and sins, you say, well, how do I know whether I'm dead or not? Here's how you know. Because there's some of you13:04 here that would say, you died today I'll ask you this. If you died today, would you go to heaven? Most people would say well of course. Let me ask you this. Why. Why would you go. Most people would say this because I'm a13:15 pretty good person. To which I would ask compared to who. Like your friends. I'm pretty good person compared to them too. Right. If you ever compared yourself to the13:27 perfect eternal living God of the universe you'll come up really short. Some people think that well I'm really religious. I've gone to church my whole life. I've always been a Christian. No you're not. You were born dead13:36 in your sins and you're the Bible teaches us that if we die in our sins our sins will drag us to an eternal hell separated from God. Hell is not a place that bad people go and hang out together. Hell is13:48 a place where people go individually. Where it is outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. It's where everybody who is born is on their way to until they recognize they have14:00 a need for the Lord to save them and they desire to turn from their sin and by faith place their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So here's the deal. If you're born on your way to hell here's my14:12 question. When did you turn and trust Christ? Well I've just kind of always believed. No you haven't. You've always lived for yourself. When did you turn and trust Christ? When did the Holy Spirit come into your life?14:24 When did you acknowledge that Jesus coming to the earth wasn't just for the shepherds. Jesus coming to earth was for you. See the message is this that God so loved the world that he sent Jesus for you.14:36 The message is this, that God made him who had no sin to become sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. You see that baby in a manger is the king of kings and the lord of lords, the 1 who14:47 created the entire universe. That baby in the manger is the 1 who's gonna fulfill the law. That baby in a manger is the 1 who's gonna grow into a man who's gonna heal and deliver people from their sin. He's gonna fix the14:58 way the world needs to go. He's gonna go to the cross even though he's gonna ask his dad, if there's any other way, I'll do it, but not my will. Your will be done. And as he goes to the cross and he puts nails in it,15:08 gets nails put in his hand and in his feet and breathes his last and dies, it's the most tragic story in human history. Why? Because Jesus wasn't born like we were born.15:20 He didn't have a father like we had. He had his father God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He wasn't conceived in sin. When he came into the world he's fully man but he's always been fully15:32 God And so the only way that Jesus could die would be to give up his life on a cross. You know and intuitively you're gonna die. You don't know when. Could be today. Could be15:44 60 years from now. We don't know But Jesus would have never died. He's God. He gave up his life. He was willing to deal with insults and abuse and hatred and all those things. Why?15:56 Because he had a love for you. And even if you would have been the only person on the planet he would have come and died for you. He laid down his life for you. So if you don't need to be afraid of this message because16:07 it's really good news because when you believe in Jesus, it secures your relationship with God now for all eternity because Jesus said this, I am the way the truth and the life and no 1 comes to the father except through16:18 me. Pastor Jeff are you saying that Jesus is the only way to be saved? 100 percent yes. 100 percent yes. Well what about other religions out there? I'm not talking about religions. I'm talking about the God16:30 man Jesus Christ. And apart from him there is no salvation. There is no other name under heaven given under men by which we must be saved. Amen.16:46 But see here's the good news. Romans 5 8 says but while we were still sinners Christ died for us. God doesn't wait until you get everything right. God doesn't wait until you put everything together. God doesn't wait16:58 until you can show them what a good person you are now. God goes after those who are lost. God takes those who are messed up. God takes those who don't think they're messed up, who are super prideful, which means they're17:08 more messed up than anybody thinking that they're not messed up. He goes after prideful. He goes after broken. He goes after everybody to let them know, I came for you. And even if you never respond to me by faith17:20 and even if you never repent of your sin, know this I love you. I just can't be with you until you turn from your sin and turn to me. So if you're called to not be afraid and you're called to believe the message then17:32 what's the third thing you need to do when you hear the Word of God? Here's what I would say. Respond immediately. Your eternity is counting on it. Respond immediately. I mean17:43 when you hear that God's willing to save you and you're convicted of that, respond to him. You say, how do I know that I'm hearing God? Because the Bible says the Holy Spirit comes to bring conviction of sin,17:55 righteousness, and judgment. For some of you that are here today, many of you that are here today, you know that if you died in your sin and you met the Lord face to face, you would hear these words, depart from me you18:05 worker of iniquity. I never knew you. We never had a relationship. You can't enter my kingdom. Some of you are convicted tonight that Jesus is righteous and you're not. And some of you are being convicted tonight that18:15 judgment is coming and make no mistake about it. Jesus Christ is coming back and he will judge both the living and the dead. Here's the question. Are you ready for him? Do you have a relationship with the eternal18:27 God? And see Jesus, when he came, everything he did, he did publicly. Did you know that? When he left heaven, he left heaven publicly and came as a baby in a manger. He grew up publicly. He18:39 called his disciples publicly. He healed publicly. He preached publicly. He delivered demons publicly. He raised people from the dead publicly. He went to the cross and was shamed and18:50 beaten publicly. He died publicly. He rose from the dead publicly, and guess what? He's coming back to this planet publicly. You can bank on it. Amen?19:04 So when God knows that he loves you, here's what he says in his word. Anyone who's ashamed of me and my words, I'll be ashamed to him when I come to. Tonight, I'm gonna give you opportunity to respond to him. I'm gonna19:15 give you the opportunity to respond to him just simply by standing to your feet because the Bible says this, if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and we believe in our hearts God raised him from the dead, you19:25 will be saved. So here's my question. When were you saved? When were you rescued? When were you delivered? So I don't have a story like that. I don't go to a church like this. I'm not asking you to join our church.19:37 I'm telling you if you've never been rescued or delivered, you are not saved and if you were to die in your sin, you would be apart from God forever And that was never his intention because he loves you so much. So in a19:47 minute, I'm gonna give you the opportunity to stand to your feet. We'll recite back together just a statement says something like this. Today, I publicly confess Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and19:59 Savior. You say, well, would he? Why would you have me stand? Because if Jesus called you publicly, why wouldn't you respond publicly? And here's the deal. If you won't stand for Christ in a church, I promise you, you20:08 won't stand for a mountain world. We had hundreds stand at our last service. I'm not asking you, are you religious? I'm not asking you, do you go to church? I'm not asking you if you're a good person. I'm not asking what20:20 you've done to make people think you're good. I'm asking you if you've heard the Lord speak to your heart and you know you've never responded by faith and you want Jesus to be the Lord of your life, that's what that's20:30 who I'm inviting to stand. And when you stand, here's the Bible says, there's more rejoicing over 1 sinner that repents than over 99 that don't need to. And even if you were the only person here and you stood, there20:41 would be myriads. All those angels would be rejoicing the same way knowing that you are written with your name in the lamb's book of life. Do you want the gift? I'm offering you a gift that God's been wanting you to20:53 have from the moment that you were conceived. He wants you to be saved. He wants to be in relationship with you. So whether you're here in Englewood, whether you're in Westminster, if you're watching online, I'm just21:04 gonna invite you right now where you're standing. If you wanna receive Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior, would you stand to your feet right now, please? And we will worship the lord as you do. Thank you.21:25 Thank you. Praise the Lord. I'm gonna ask you to stay standing, stay standing.21:37 And if you're sitting there saying, I should have stood, I should have stood, stand now. Stand now. It's God talking to you saying, hey, do you hear my voice? Do you hear21:49 me? Amen. Amen. Here's what I'd like us to do. I'd like us to read this on the screen behind me. I'll I'll22:01 say it out loud. You can repeat after me. If you're seated, you can pray this prayer too, but let's do this out loud and loudly. Let's do it because we want this in our lives. Would you would you pray this with22:13 me or speak it out loud with me today? Let's do it loudly. All right. Today I publicly confess22:25 Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior. Lord and savior. Amen and amen. Can we give God praise for what he's done in this place tonight? Amen.22:45 You may be seated. I wanna tell you for those of you that stood to your feet tonight that your life has changed, and you won't make it out of this place without the enemy starting to lie to you and say, nah. It's not22:55 that big of a deal. Nothing changed. You stood in a religious service. No. No. No. You trusted the Lord Jesus Christ with your life and he will be with you forever. And you can be assured of this when you stand before23:04 him on judgment day. Here's what you'll hear. Well done, good and faithful servant. Welcome home. Welcome home. You belong to him. Amen? I'd encourage you if you don't have a23:16 church you're part of, you're always welcome at Brave. Your next step of faith would be to be baptized with water as a step of obedience as 1 of his disciples. Right now, I'm gonna turn it over to our Westminster campus23:28 with pastor Justin and the other pastors there. And what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be I'm gonna pray for us. We're gonna be lighting candles here in a minute. Reminded of that night, that silent night, that23:39 holy night where the light of God came into the world. And symbolically, what we're doing on all of our campuses tonight is as we start with 1 candle and light it, and then it spreads throughout this entire place as we23:50 worship the Lord. It's symbolic of what Christ has done, how he's come into the world, and he has taken our darkness and removed it because light always overcomes darkness. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven,24:02 we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are. And Lord, we thank you tonight and we rejoice with all the saints who have gone before us, all the angels that are around your throne, celebrating the new24:13 names that you have brought into your kingdom that you've always wanted to bring. And, Lord, I pray for each person here who is now indwelled with your spirit that they would grow in the knowledge and grace of Jesus.24:23 Lord, that you would let them know this is a new identity and a new life for them, and, that they would live for you all the days of their life. Father, we celebrate you. We thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus24:33 Christ. We thank you for your holy spirit who indwells us, and we thank you that your gospel is still alive. We give you all the praise and glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
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