Pastor Fredo Ramos: Well, welcome everybody. It is so good to see you guys. Welcome here to Sandals Church as we are on the heels of Christmas. There is so much for us to be doing, so much for us to be getting ready and prepared for, But we gather in this space today to, as the song says, let every heart prepare room for him, to allow ourselves to center on the the story of Christmas. I know in the midst of a busy life and a busy, schedule, we can find ourselves with friends at events, at stores, and we go from hearing songs like Here Comes Santa Claus to Away in the Manger, and we ask ourselves, how how do we get here in this moment?
And so worship, gathering gives us a chance to center ourselves, on the reality that we're invited to prepare our hearts and to prepare our hearts and make room for real joy. So with that, I wanna invite you to stand with me as we read scripture. Regarding the Christmas story, let's hear these words from scripture. The lord himself will give you the sign. Look, the virgin will conceive a child.
She
will
give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel, which means God is with us. At the time, the Roman emperor Augustus decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman empire. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child.
And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no lodging available for them. That night, there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. And suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory fully surrounded them.
They were terrified, but the angel reassured them, do not be afraid for I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord has been born today in Bethlehem, and you will recognize him by this sign. You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger. Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others, the armies of heaven praising God and saying, glory to God in highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased. All who heard the shepherd's stories were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.
The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, for it was just as the angel had told them. Let's sing together.
Pastor Matthew Stephen Brown: Hey, I just wanna just say Merry Christmas and welcome you to the Sandals Church Christmas Eve services. And for many of us, you know, we're a little hesitant to come to church on Christmas Eve because we're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, got the story. I know it, she's still a virgin, right? We got all of this stuff in our minds. But let me be honest, as a pastor, I get really nervous about two messages every year, Christmas and Easter.
And it's because people already think they know the story. And so I'm always trying to look for a new angle or something different to try to wow you or inspire you. But the truth is, it's an amazing story. And this is my twenty ninth year preaching a Christmas Eve message to Sandals Church, amen? Twenty nine years.
I'm like double the age of Mary during this story, you know what I'm saying? But this is an incredible story. And as I was prepping and as I was praying through this message, there were some things that God really just spoke to me that he'd never spoken to me before. And I pray that God speaks to you, even if you're a guest, you've never been to church before, maybe you're not a Christian, you know, you believe in science, you're one of those people. I want you to listen really carefully to what I have to say, because I believe that some of you are going to see the light for the first time in your life, and it's gonna change your life today.
So I wanna talk about the light of the world. Okay, so at Christmas time, it's all about lights. We are new grandparents and that's been a wonderful, wonderful thing. And we took our grandson on a boat parade in the harbor, you know, in Dana Point Harbor, not because we own a boat, I'm a pastor and I live off what you pay me. So we don't have a boat, you know what I'm saying?
But he's so cute, right? Every single light, he does this with his finger, you know, he just, he hasn't figured this out. So it's kind of like a gun. I'm like, hey, we're the Inland Empire, you know, don't be doing that. But you know, he just constantly is pointing to all of the lights, you know, and it just draws our attention.
And there's something about Christmas, right? Where we enjoy this and anybody who's hung lights, you're like, I'm never doing this again, you know, because it's a lot of work, but it's a beautiful thing when a neighborhood puts lights on their houses or when boats get together and they do that. Or, you know, I think Keno Hills has a boat parade where they pull them behind trucks because we're the inland empire, so there's no water. And it's like, yeah, it's still kind of cool. But Christmas is about lights.
And there's a reason for that. Because Christmas is about one light, the light of the world. And so I want you to write this down if you're taking notes. God created light to help us understand, listen to this, who he is. How many guys ever been through a dark time?
Okay, don't point at your spouse, it's Christmas Eve. But we all go through dark times. We go through difficult seasons. We lose our jobs. We get a scary health test.
Maybe our kids are sick, something's going on. It's always difficult. There's always darkness in life. That's a guarantee. What's not a guarantee is that you see the light.
And so when we open our Bibles to the very, very first chapter, to the very first few words, this is what God says. It says, Then God said, 'Let there be light.' So here's what I want you to understand. Light was his idea. It was his idea. When I was a kid in the seventies, on TikTok now, I don't know how I got on this feed, but it's all the cool toys when you were a kid, But I had a LightBrite.
Anybody have a LightBrite? Okay, and if you don't know what that is, you're like 14, okay? But basically LightBrite was like a video game system and it did nothing. You just put lights in it. But I loved this thing.
It was one of my favorite toys in the seventies as a kid. But I want you to know Hasbro didn't invent light. Luke Skywalker didn't invent light. George Lucas didn't invent light. God did.
Listen to that, he said, Let there be light. It was his idea. I want you to think about that the next time you watch a sunset or a sunrise. Do you know there's no reason at all that those things are beautiful? There's just no reason.
It's a beautiful thing. Let there be light. I was sitting with a bunch of pastors and we were having a conference and I was talking to them about a green flash. How many guys have ever seen a green flash at a sunset? Okay, nobody, you need to get out more.
But you know, there's a lot of people that don't believe it's real because it's very, very hard to see. It has to be an absolutely cloudless night, but it's a beautiful thing. As light bends over the curvature of the earth, the yellow sun turns green just for a second, okay? And it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. And I had all these pastors that are like, You're lying.
I'm like, I'm a pastor, you think I would lie? They're like, Yeah, we do. But I want you to know, even the green flash, that's God's idea. It's a beautiful thing. Let there be light.
And guess what? When God says, let there be light. I mean, how many of you guys have ever had an idea, a vision? It takes a lot of work to make it happen. When God thinks it, it happens.
Let there be light and there was light. And God saw, this is important, that the light was good. It's good. And then he separated the light from the darkness. And if you are living in darkness, listen to me, you are separate from the light.
And it's not that God is bad, it's that you are living in things that are bad and probably doing things that are bad. And this Christmas Eve, God is calling you out of the darkness into his light. Genesis one sixteen, And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And he made the stars. Now we don't get to see this because we get to see smog, amen?
But there was a day and age when you got to see this. One of my lifelong goals and dreams is to go to the island of Maui, and on a clear night, if you hike to the top of the mountain, it's about ten thousand feet, supposedly it's one of the best places on earth to see the lights. Apparently you can see the entire Milky Way. That's not a candy bar at seven Eleven. It's actually billions of lights across the sky.
And God created all of those, and they are to declare his beauty and his glory. Now take a look at the gospel of one John, excuse me, one John one:five. This is the message we heard from Jesus. And now we declare to you, God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. Why is that important?
Because if you just look at your life, if you just look at the darkness around you, you can get jaded when it comes to how you see God. Don't interpret God based upon your life, interpret God based upon the light. Jesus says, there's nothing bad about God at all. God is supremely good, supremely beautiful, supremely bright. And your life may be miserable today, but that is not because of God.
It may be because you don't have God in your life. Now check this out. God has placed the lights exactly where we needed them to be. Now there's something that's happening in science today. When I was a kid growing up, most scientists were atheists.
Most scientists didn't believe that there was a God. Most scientists believed that the cosmos, the sky, all of creation is just some random event that occurred over billions of years. And they had no idea why, but something is happening. A couple of months ago, I was at Oxford University in England, one of the most prestigious, if not the most prestigious universities on earth, okay? There's a revival taking place.
A revival of professors, a revival of students, and there's this huge movement away from atheism to a belief specifically in Jesus, Amen? Okay, now it may take a little longer for that revival to get to your school because your school's a little slower. You know what I'm saying? I love you, but you're not at Oxford. But in Psalm chapter eight, verses three through four, look at this.
It says, When I look at the night sky and I see the work of your fingers. Okay, this morning I had to test blood on my fingers, you know, so that meant I poked myself 17 times because I didn't read the directions correctly. Gotta get my hormones checked to make sure everything's working. My wife says I'm a terrible instruction reader, but you know, after three pricks, then I read the instructions and got it right. But so the work of my fingers is a mess.
Have your fingers ever messed something up? Done something wrong? Some of you are gonna be making toys later tonight, redoing it three times because you didn't read the directions. When I look at the night sky and I see the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, here's what I want you to see. You set in place.
You see, science can tell us what a star is. Science can't tell us why it's there. But look at the next verse. What are mere mortals that you should think about them? And if you don't know what a mortal is, that's you, okay?
You're gonna live and you're gonna die. What is it about mere mortals that you should think of them? Human beings that you should care for them. So here's what I want you to see. I want you to see that this text marries the placement of the sun, the moon, the stars, and you.
And what marries them is God has placed them in a place because he loves and cares for you. How many of you guys think you live in the absolute perfect home? Raise your hands, anybody got the perfect home? Nobody? Okay, I was shopping for my wife this week in Orange County, because that's where you go to spend real money.
You ever noticed that they want your phone number for a discount? And the gal says, can I get your number? And I said, well, I'm married. That's not what she meant. She said, can I get your number?
And I said, 951. She was like, oh. Oh, did you want the layaway plan? Is that Did you wanna make payments? We judge zip codes, don't we?
We do. I mean, Newport Beach, you know, looks down upon Berea. Berea is like Corona. Corona is like Riverside. Riverside, man, we're like, Blythe, what's up with Blythe?
You know what I'm saying? But what would you say if I told you, you live in the absolutely most perfect place in all of the universe? Did you know this, that the earth is the perfect cosmic address? You better praise God you live here because if you didn't live here, guess what? You don't live anywhere.
Did you know, how many guys have ever seen the sun? I mean, don't stare directly at it. How many guys have ever seen the sun? Raise your hand. Half of this room has seen the sun.
Hopefully more of you have been like, yeah, I noticed that fiery ball in the sky. Did you know that the sun is 93,000,000 miles away from us? And if it was even slightly closer, we'd all fry. If it was just a little further away, we'd all freeze. It's in the perfect spot.
Did you know that the sun's size is the perfect size for what we need? And here's the thing, it ought to make you nervous, but the sun is like a gigantic bomb that is blowing up. It's like a nuclear plant gone bad. But here's the thing, even though it's constantly erupting, it's stable. And it gives us energy without frying us.
Okay, unless it's 03:00 in the afternoon and you didn't wear sunscreen, that's on you. Do you know that the sun's temperature keeps our oceans wet and that keeps our air breathable? Check this out, how many guys ever seen the moon? Hopefully more of you've seen that, I know. Night owls, you're sinners, you're out at night.
The moon's position and size helps keep us on a tilt. Like if you feel like you're a little off, you are, you know? We're on a tilt, okay? And I know we have some flat earthers in here, I'm praying for you. But our round earth has a bit of a bulge.
You know, it's Christmas, she's been eating. And that bulge wobbles her, you know? So check this out. Do you know what the moon helps? The moon helps the earth stay in rhythm, You know?
Otherwise, we just kinda, woah, too close to Mars. It's amazing. How many guys heard of a planet called Jupiter? Some of you need to read more, like three people. I think I saw that movie on Netflix.
No, it's an actual planet. Did you know that Jupiter acts like a cosmic vacuum? It sucks up asteroids that would destroy us. It's literally like God gave us security, private security. He's like, Earth, you're a little small.
Jupiter, back them up. He's like, I got this. You ever had a friend that said, I'd take a bullet for you? And they all lie, but that's what they say. Jupiter's like, I'll take a bullet for you.
And it has for thousands of years. All these lights in the sky are not random, they are for our protection. And that's why I think so many people have forgotten God because we don't look up anymore. You see, science can tell us what they are, but listen to me, they cannot tell us why they are. And this is why scientists are changing their minds.
They're saying it's like it was designed. Know, ain't that funny when a PhD in physics arrives at the same conclusion as a kindergartner? Listen to me, here's why you need God in your life. Science can tell you about things, but only God can give you meaning. You see science can give us information, but God gives us purpose.
Next, look at this. God created a specific light, there we go, God created a specific light to lead people to Jesus. That's why we're talking about light. Because there was a specific light two thousand years ago that was literally a flashlight from heaven to you, to me saying, this is how you get out of the darkness. In Matthew two:one-two, look at this.
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men, now we're gonna talk about those guys. So if have your Bible, I want you to circle that. Because in the Greek translation, it's Magi, and we're gonna talk about who they were. Wise men from the East came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw, I want you to And some of you, you've been a Christian your whole life and you've never paid attention to these two words.
We saw whose star? His star. It rose and we have come to worship him. Wise men, who are these guys? The Greek says magi.
It's where we get our English word magic. These are magicians, But specifically they're magicians from a specific religion that really doesn't exist anymore. It's one of the world's oldest religions, it's called Zoroastrianism. Now where are Zoroastrian priests from? They're from a country called Iran.
And when Islam came to Persia, came to Iran, it destroyed Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism is one of the world's most ancient religions. And you wanna know what makes them unique? Guess how many gods they believe in? One God.
They were one of the first groups to say, there's not many gods, there's not all kinds of gods, there's one God. And by the way, listen to this, He is good. Listen to this, and He is light. They were deep into astronomy. They tracked stars, they tracked planets, they tracked eclipses, they created calendars and rituals.
They were ancient sky watchers, but they were also priests. They were scholars, they were astrologers and maybe the first astronomers. They had fire temples, they had star charts, and guess what? They probably invented math. You know, I'm gonna be mad at them for that one.
But they probably were the first ones to invent math and science. So just imagine Elon Musk becoming a Catholic priest, you know what I'm saying? Like genius and religious. So these guys track the stars, believe in one God, they're not Jewish, they're not Christian, but they see something in the sky that says God is doing something unusual. Notice these words, we saw its star as it rose.
So who places the sun, the moon and the stars where they go? Who places them? God does. So who placed this new star? God did.
They saw it, they were watching, they were worshiping. They said, Oh my gosh, God, the God of light is doing something different. And oh, by the way, he's doing it in Israel. Let's go and see what this is. And so non Jewish Zoroastrian priests looking at the sky see that God is doing something and they go to Jerusalem and they have the scriptures and they completely missed what God was doing.
And so they went to the king and they said, We have seen a star in the sky and we have come to worship him. And the king's a little nervous, you wanna know why? Because he's not legitimate, just like you're not legitimate. You were never made to sit on your throne. Matthew two:nine-eleven.
After listening to the king, I love this, they went their own way. That's what some of you guys need to do. When you listen to a stupid person, you know what you need to do? Just go your own way, just walk away. How many of you guys have friends that are just dumb?
You know what I'm saying? Yeah. You're gonna be at Christmas meal and people are going, you know what I think Trump should do? You're like, no. Yep.
Pass the potatoes. Pass the potatoes. Isn't it amazing people who can't even run their own life? You know? I had this person at our church telling me about how the world should work.
His fly was down. I was like, you know, when when you get that right, when you when you when you, you know, Can we all agree that's an important step before you go outside? Let's get that zipped up and then we'll talk about how to organize the world. But check this out. After listening to the king, they went their own way and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them.
It's like God is leading them. If you're not a Christian, I want you to listen to me very carefully. There's gonna be moments in your life where God is leading you. Maybe he led you here tonight. You didn't wanna go, but your grandma made you come.
And you love your grandma, but your grandma knows something about God that you don't. And listen to me, these moments are precious because I don't know how many moments like this you'll get. Everyone in Jerusalem missed the star, the Magi weren't about to miss it. So it went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. Listen very carefully, not all religions lead to the same place.
If your religion does not lead you to Jesus, then you have not been led to God. You see the Zoroastrians, they had some of the truth, right? There's one God, he's good, he's the God of light, he's fighting evil. And oh, by the way, they rejected this idea that evil is equal to God. They rejected that.
They said God is going to destroy evil. So they had a lot of truth, but they didn't have the truth. And so just like you, just like me, we have ideas about God, we have ideas about religion, we have ideas about good, we have ideas about evil. Without Jesus, none of that's getting us to heaven. I love this verse.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Wow, think about this, not Jewish, not Christian, Zoroastrian, Magi. They just lost their religion, but they found their souls. At the end of this message we're gonna sing O Holy Night. One of my favorite lines in that song is these words, when the soul felt its worth.
You see many of you, you are living your lives for things that have no worth, but your soul has worth. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother. And look what the Zoroastrian priests do. And they fell down and they worshiped him. Let me spell this out.
They converted. They converted. You see, it's one thing to make your way to church, it's another thing to convert to Jesus. And why don't we wanna convert? Because we don't wanna change our lives.
Some of you, you'd become a Christian if you could just add him to the life that you're already living. And here's why we don't wanna convert because we wanna hold onto the things that we think have value. I want you to notice what the Magi did. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Don't you think they were gonna need money for the trip on the way back?
But none of that matters anymore. Because what mattered isn't the trip on the way back, what matters is the trip to heaven to be with Jesus. Every religion, no matter how sincere, every genius, no matter the level of intelligence. I tell people all the time, I'm a low functioning genius. I know, thanks for laughing, it hurts.
Every genius, no matter the level of intelligence, listen to me, needs Jesus. Amen. Needs Jesus. And why is that? Jesus is the light I need to conquer the darkness I face.
Man, that's why we need Jesus. We're all facing darkness. We're all battling darkness. We're all wrestling with darkness. Darkness without and darkness within.
I mean, do you know that you're a sinner? This is how good of a sinner I am. My wife and I this week got in a fight shopping for a Christmas tree. How how do you do that? Like, we're going to get a tree.
We've decided to get a tree. We have money for a tree. We're in the car not looking at trees, but we're fighting because we're sinners. We all have darkness. Some of you guys are gonna fight on Christmas morning.
You made those rolls? Why you gotta make ham, mom? I hate ham. I mean, listen to me, some of you parents are gonna threaten on Christmas morning to take all the gifts back because you're raising little sinners. I mean, some of you you're gonna get your son a wiffle ball bat then you're gonna take that bat and wiffle him.
It's because we're sinners. Some of you are gonna have kids that are crying because they didn't get the one gift they wanted. Oh, my little sinner. You are in darkness and you need the light of Christ and the light of this wiffle ball bat. Amen.
But listen to me, Christmas is not about judgment. Christmas is about grace. We're gonna take a step back from Jesus because sometimes we forget what happened before Jesus came. You see, the wise men had been looking for this star for centuries, maybe for a millennia. Jews had been waiting for the coming Messiah for over four hundred years.
There had been silence. God had not spoken for four hundred years. And then there was a prophet named Zechariah and he went into the temple and guess who decided to show up? God did. And only how God does, God makes him so he can't talk.
So he can't tell anybody what happened. He comes out of the temple, he's like, you know, can't say anything. But his wife couldn't get pregnant. She miraculously became pregnant. And normally, you know, he would name him little Zach, you know, something like that.
And he's like, no, no, no, his name's gonna be John and everybody thought that was weird, scandalous. Why isn't his name your name? But then we can finally speak, he prophesies about his boy, look at Luke. He says, And you, my little son, oh, my little son, man, we'll be called the prophet of the most high. John the Baptist is not the most high.
He is the prophet of the most high. You see little John is like my grandson West, he had one job, you know what it was? Points. Not to himself, he points to Jesus. And little John is gonna tell the world to get ready because the Lord is here.
Look at this. And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the most high because you will prepare the way for the Lord. The star is coming. The Messiah is coming. And so we need a billboard and his name is John.
Now listen to this. You will tell his people how to find salvation. You see, that's what religion is about. How are we saved? We're all gonna die.
Tammy and I were on the phone this week with somebody who's almost 80 years old, terrified to die, terrified to die. I hope that's not you. I hope that you are ready to die and expected to see the light. I hope when I'm on my deathbed, I'm smiling because I'm finally gonna see him face to face. I don't have to see you guys anymore, amen.
But this guy's almost 80 years old. Listen to me, he has been on his deathbed for six months and he's still not ready. You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. Do you know why young people like to protest? Do you know why that's so captivating?
Because it's so much easier to point out everybody else's sins, right? Do you know what's really hard? To point out your sins. But here's the good news. Because of God's I love this translation.
God's tender mercy. The morning light from heaven is the do you hear how beautiful this is? The morning light from heaven is about to break upon us. Man, one of my favorite authors of all time is Gerald Tolkien, and one of my favorite books is The Lord of the Rings. And in the middle book, just when all hope is lost and all their warriors are dead, Gandalf the White says, look for the light on the morning of the third day.
Do you know that Tolkien was a Christian? Look for the light on the morning of the third day. To give light to those who sit in darkness. You wanna know why you're depressed? Do you wanna know why you're anxious?
Do you wanna know why you're overwhelmed? Do you wanna know why you're not happy with your life? You sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. In the shadow of death, John's job was to guide us to the path of peace. Listen to me, some of you've got this wrong.
Here's what you think salvation is. Salvation is saying some prayer. Salvation is getting baptized and getting wet. Listen to me, salvation is choosing a different way to walk. It's a different life to live.
And I'm grateful when you were eight years old, you went forward or you went forward at a harvest crusade or you got baptized here at Sandals Church. Listen to me, if you're sitting in darkness and walking in the dark, you are not following the light. We're gonna close with this last verse, John eight twelve. Jesus spoke and said, I'm the light of the world. Now think about that.
C. S. Lewis says Jesus is one of three things, a liar, a lunatic, or the son of God. You can't call him a good teacher because that's nutty. Can you imagine if I came out here, welcome to Sandals, I am the light of the world.
Like you should run. That's nutty. Jesus said, I'm the light of the world. I'm the light of the world. If you say a prayer, if you get baptized, if you walk forward at church one time.
No, no, no, what does he say? If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life. Amen. So I'm just wondering right now how many of you are sitting in darkness? What better day to give your life to the light from heaven than on Christmas Eve?
I'm just wondering, is there anybody in here, anybody at our campuses, even if you're watching online, you're in Nebraska and you're freezing, move to California. But before you do that, give your life to Christ. Is there anybody in here today that wants to stop sitting in darkness, that wants to stop living in the darkness and wants to give themselves to Jesus Christ and wants to walk in light? Is there anybody in here this morning? Come on, let's give him a hand.
Anybody? Thank you very much, anybody? Anybody? Listen to me. Thank you so much.
Listen, if your hand went up, I want you to know this, Jesus' hand just went down and he will never let you go. That's why Jesus Christ came to earth. His name, Emmanuel, means God with us. And if you confess your sins, if you repent of them and place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, God will be with you forever. And when you die, you will be with him forever.
Amen? Amen. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this Christmas Eve. We thank you for this beautiful night, Lord, we're light one over darkness.
God, I pray that every single one of us tonight would know that we have the light of life, that we have the light of the son of God. And Lord, like those Zoroastrian magi priests, Lord, we would do everything in our power to follow that light. Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to us. Thank you for Christmas. Thank you for saving the earth.
We thank you for this, Lord Jesus. And all God's people said, Amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: Amen. What a word for us this Christmas Eve, and that is our hope and prayer that you would walk in the light of Jesus. And listen, for those of you who maybe made that decision and you're watching from a faraway place like Nebraska, we would love to reach out to you. We would love to know who you are, what your story is. To follow-up with us, you can go to sandalschurch.com/help.
Also, if this service or really what we've been doing all year long has served you in any kind of way, I wanna encourage you to support the work that God is doing in and through Sandals Church. To do that, you can go to sandalschurch.com/support. Grace and peace, and we hope you have a Merry Christmas.