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Rusty George is the Lead Pastor at Church360 in Grand Prairie. Under his dedicated leadership, Church360 aspires to flourish as a vibrant community committed to guiding individuals in their journey to discover and follow the path of Jesus.
Beyond leading Church360, Rusty is a global speaker, leader and teacher focusing on making real life simple. Rusty has also written several books and can be heard weekly on his podcast, Leading Simple with Rusty George.
Aside from being a loyal Chiefs, Royals, and Lakers fan, Rusty is first and foremost committed to his family. Rusty has been married to his wife, Lorrie, for over twenty-five years, and they have two daughters, Lindsey and Sidney. As a family, they enjoy walking the dogs, playing board games together, and watching HGTV while Rusty watches ESPN on his iPad.
Rusty George: It's
quiet tonight, isn't it?
Christmas Eve, the frantic rush of
the last few weeks finally slows down.
The presents are wrapped,
the cookies are baked.
The chaos pauses and in the quiet, maybe
you can finally hear it, that whisper.
You've been too busy to notice.
I'm here.
I've always been here.
I'm with you.
2000 years ago, on a night
like this, the world changed.
Not with fireworks, not with armies,
not with announcements on CNN or Fox
News with a baby's crying and a stable.
And in that moment, God kept
a promise he's been making
since the beginning of time.
I will be with you.
Let me take you on a journey
through scripture, through
history, through the story of God's
relentless pursuit of being with us.
It starts in Genesis.
God creates Adam and
Eve, and what does he do?
Genesis three, eight says, God
walked with them in the cool
of the day, not above them, not
distant from them, but with them.
That was always the plan.
Relationships, presence,
closeness, but then sin enters.
And what happens?
Adam and Eve hide, not because God
left, but because they pulled away.
And from that moment on the entire Bible
is the story of God saying, come back.
I wanna be with you again.
Fast forward to Exodus.
God leads Israel out of slavery,
and he doesn't just deliver them and
wave goodbye, but he says, build me a
tabernacle and I will dwell among you.
Exodus 25 8 says, then have
them make a sanctuary for me
and I will dwell among them.
God wanted to be with his people so badly
that he gave detailed blueprints for a
tent, a portable dwelling so he could
travel with them through the wilderness.
Now, think about that.
The God of the universe who
created galaxies with a word says,
I wanna live in a tent with you.
That's not a distant deity.
That's a God who pursues presence.
Then the prophets start speaking
and over and over they promise.
One day God will come and
everything will change.
Isaiah seven 14 says, the virgin will
conceive and give birth to a son and
will call him Emmanuel, which means
God with us, not God near us, not
God watching us, but God is with us.
For 400 years after the last prophet,
Israel heard nothing silence, no word from
God, and they wondered, did he forget?
Is he still there?
Is he still with us?
Then in a small town called Nazareth,
an angel appears to a teenage girl
named Mary, and the angel says, you
will conceive and give birth to a
son and you are to call him Jesus.
He will be great and will be
called the son of the most
high and nine months later.
Stable, a manger, a baby.
Matthew 1 22 and 23 says All this
took place to fulfill what the
Lord had said through the prophet.
The virgin will conceive and give
birth to a son and they will call him
Emmanuel, which means God with us.
God didn't send a message.
He didn't send a prophet.
He didn't even send an angel.
He sent himself.
That's Christmas.
Here's what blows my mind
about the incarnation.
Jesus didn't show up
as a king in a palace.
He showed up as a baby in a barn.
Let me paint the picture.
Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem.
The town is packed.
Roman census.
Everyone's back to
register, no room anywhere.
Finally, someone takes pity and
says, you can sleep with the animals.
So Mary, exhausted in labor, lies down in
the dirt, in the smell, in the mess, and
they're surrounded by sheep and donkeys.
Jesus enters the world.
No sterile hospital room, no epidural, no
nurses, just a teenage mom, A terrified
stepdad and a baby born in the mud.
Why?
Why would God choose that?
Because that's where we are in the
mud, in the mess, in the dirt of broken
relationships, shattered dreams in chaotic
lives, and God says, I'll meet you there.
Then the angels appear,
and what do they do first?
Where do they go?
Not to Caesar, not Herod, not the priests,
but to the shepherds, the lowest of
the low, the forgotten the outsiders.
They wr the sky and say, do not be afraid.
I bring you good news that will
cause great joy for all the people.
Today in the town of David,
a Savior's been born to you.
He is the Messiah.
The Lord God didn't come for the elite.
He came for the forgotten, the broken.
The ones who thought they didn't matter.
He came for you.
And then Jesus stays.
He doesn't just show up for
the birth scene and leave.
He stays 30 years in Nazareth, working as
a carpenter, sweating, getting blisters,
dealing with difficult customers.
Can you imagine?
Hey, Jesus, you messed up this table,
this leg iss too short, and Jesus, the son
of God, has to sand it down and fix it.
Why?
Because God wanted to
experience all of it.
Not just the mountaintop moments,
the ordinary, the mundane,
the frustrating, all of it.
Hebrews four 15 says, we do not have a
high priest who's unable to empathize
with our weaknesses, but we have one who's
been tempted in every way just as we are.
Yet he did not sin.
Jesus knows what it's like to be tired,
hungry, misunderstood, rejected, alone.
He is not a distant
God who doesn't get it.
He's Emmanuel God with us in all of it.
So here's the question for us tonight.
What does Emmanuel mean for you?
'cause Christmas isn't just a memory,
it's a promise that's still active.
Let me show you three ways.
God is with you right now.
God is with you in your darkness.
Maybe this Christmas is hard.
Maybe you're grieving.
Maybe you are alone.
Maybe you're broke.
Maybe you're just tired.
You're not celebrating, you're surviving.
Listen to me, God is with you there.
Isaiah nine, two says, the people walking
in darkness have seen a great light.
That's the whole point of advent.
That's why we lit candles every
week to remind us the darkness
is real, but the light is here.
God is with you in your ordinary.
Maybe your Christmas isn't dramatic
and maybe it's just regular.
Same family, same tradition,
same leftovers on the 26th.
Then you think, God, where
are you in the ordinary?
He's there because most of
Jesus' life was ordinary.
Brother Lawrence, a monk from the
16 hundreds, wrote a book called
The Practice of the Presence of God.
His whole philosophy, God is in
the dishes, God's in the laundry.
God's in the boring, mundane moments.
You don't have to wait for a God moment.
Every moment is a God moment when
you're aware of his presence.
And number three, God is
with you in your future.
Maybe you're scared, uncertain.
2025 feels overwhelming.
You don't know how the
bills will get paid.
You don't know if the
relationship will survive.
You don't know if you can keep going.
Here's what you do know.
God is with you.
Jesus', last words to us were,
and surely I'm with you, always
to the very end of the age.
He didn't say, I'll be with
you when things are good.
He didn't say, I'll be
with you when you are good.
He said, I'll be with you always.
In the heart, in the dark and the unknown.
Emmanuel God with us.
Let me close with this.
John Chapter one verses four and five.
In him was life, and that life
was the light of all mankind.
The light shines in the darkness and
the darkness has not overcome it.
For five weeks, we've
been lighting candles.
Week one was hope.
The prophecy candle,
the light is promised.
Week two is peace.
The Bethlehem candle,
the light brings shalom.
Week three is joy.
The shepherd's candle, the
light brings celebration.
Week four is love the angel's candle.
The light came down.
Week five is Christ the center candle.
The light is here.
Every time a bell rings, well, you
know the line, but here's the truth.
Every time you feel alone, remember.
Emmanuel, every time you feel forgotten.
Remember Emmanuel, every time you
feel like the darkness is winning.
Remember Emmanuel God with
us tonight on Christmas Eve.
We don't just remember a
baby born 2000 years ago.
We celebrate that.
The same God who stepped into the mess
then is stepping into your mess now.
He's not waiting for you to clean up.
He's not waiting for you
to have it all together.
He's here right now in the ordinary,
in the darkness, in the struggle,
and he's saying, I am with you.
I've always been with you.
I'll never leave you.
Merry Christmas friends may you know,
truly know that you are not alone.
A Manuel has come and he's still here.
Keep it simple and merry Christmas.