WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:01.319 --> 00:00:02.609 Rusty George: It's quiet tonight, isn't it? 00:00:03.929 --> 00:00:09.629 Christmas Eve, the frantic rush of the last few weeks finally slows down. 00:00:10.259 --> 00:00:12.149 The presents are wrapped, the cookies are baked. 00:00:12.179 --> 00:00:19.499 The chaos pauses and in the quiet, maybe you can finally hear it, that whisper. 00:00:19.919 --> 00:00:21.449 You've been too busy to notice. 00:00:22.499 --> 00:00:22.979 I'm here. 00:00:23.729 --> 00:00:24.659 I've always been here. 00:00:25.619 --> 00:00:26.279 I'm with you. 00:00:27.629 --> 00:00:30.299 2000 years ago, on a night like this, the world changed. 00:00:30.929 --> 00:00:36.119 Not with fireworks, not with armies, not with announcements on CNN or Fox 00:00:36.119 --> 00:00:39.029 News with a baby's crying and a stable. 00:00:42.044 --> 00:00:45.374 And in that moment, God kept a promise he's been making 00:00:45.374 --> 00:00:46.874 since the beginning of time. 00:00:47.444 --> 00:00:50.354 I will be with you. 00:01:09.213 --> 00:01:11.553 Let me take you on a journey through scripture, through 00:01:11.553 --> 00:01:16.383 history, through the story of God's relentless pursuit of being with us. 00:01:17.373 --> 00:01:18.573 It starts in Genesis. 00:01:18.873 --> 00:01:20.943 God creates Adam and Eve, and what does he do? 00:01:21.513 --> 00:01:24.543 Genesis three, eight says, God walked with them in the cool 00:01:24.543 --> 00:01:28.893 of the day, not above them, not distant from them, but with them. 00:01:30.303 --> 00:01:31.533 That was always the plan. 00:01:32.043 --> 00:01:36.018 Relationships, presence, closeness, but then sin enters. 00:01:36.708 --> 00:01:37.638 And what happens? 00:01:38.238 --> 00:01:43.848 Adam and Eve hide, not because God left, but because they pulled away. 00:01:45.318 --> 00:01:49.098 And from that moment on the entire Bible is the story of God saying, come back. 00:01:49.398 --> 00:01:50.748 I wanna be with you again. 00:01:51.858 --> 00:01:53.118 Fast forward to Exodus. 00:01:53.298 --> 00:01:57.078 God leads Israel out of slavery, and he doesn't just deliver them and 00:01:57.078 --> 00:02:01.428 wave goodbye, but he says, build me a tabernacle and I will dwell among you. 00:02:02.388 --> 00:02:05.748 Exodus 25 8 says, then have them make a sanctuary for me 00:02:05.958 --> 00:02:07.098 and I will dwell among them. 00:02:07.578 --> 00:02:13.278 God wanted to be with his people so badly that he gave detailed blueprints for a 00:02:13.278 --> 00:02:17.898 tent, a portable dwelling so he could travel with them through the wilderness. 00:02:18.678 --> 00:02:19.488 Now, think about that. 00:02:20.088 --> 00:02:23.688 The God of the universe who created galaxies with a word says, 00:02:23.808 --> 00:02:26.148 I wanna live in a tent with you. 00:02:27.123 --> 00:02:28.623 That's not a distant deity. 00:02:29.163 --> 00:02:31.923 That's a God who pursues presence. 00:02:32.763 --> 00:02:36.333 Then the prophets start speaking and over and over they promise. 00:02:36.333 --> 00:02:38.613 One day God will come and everything will change. 00:02:39.393 --> 00:02:43.413 Isaiah seven 14 says, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and 00:02:43.413 --> 00:02:49.323 will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us, not God near us, not 00:02:49.323 --> 00:02:52.203 God watching us, but God is with us. 00:02:53.103 --> 00:02:58.953 For 400 years after the last prophet, Israel heard nothing silence, no word from 00:02:58.953 --> 00:03:00.993 God, and they wondered, did he forget? 00:03:01.173 --> 00:03:02.133 Is he still there? 00:03:02.253 --> 00:03:03.423 Is he still with us? 00:03:04.353 --> 00:03:09.153 Then in a small town called Nazareth, an angel appears to a teenage girl 00:03:09.153 --> 00:03:13.113 named Mary, and the angel says, you will conceive and give birth to a 00:03:13.113 --> 00:03:15.573 son and you are to call him Jesus. 00:03:15.843 --> 00:03:18.453 He will be great and will be called the son of the most 00:03:18.453 --> 00:03:21.543 high and nine months later. 00:03:22.128 --> 00:03:25.128 Stable, a manger, a baby. 00:03:26.448 --> 00:03:30.198 Matthew 1 22 and 23 says All this took place to fulfill what the 00:03:30.198 --> 00:03:31.698 Lord had said through the prophet. 00:03:32.028 --> 00:03:35.928 The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him 00:03:35.928 --> 00:03:39.258 Emmanuel, which means God with us. 00:03:39.828 --> 00:03:41.448 God didn't send a message. 00:03:41.448 --> 00:03:42.648 He didn't send a prophet. 00:03:42.828 --> 00:03:44.238 He didn't even send an angel. 00:03:44.388 --> 00:03:46.038 He sent himself. 00:03:46.788 --> 00:03:47.628 That's Christmas. 00:03:48.948 --> 00:03:52.218 Here's what blows my mind about the incarnation. 00:03:52.758 --> 00:03:55.488 Jesus didn't show up as a king in a palace. 00:03:55.488 --> 00:03:57.983 He showed up as a baby in a barn. 00:03:59.343 --> 00:04:00.423 Let me paint the picture. 00:04:01.083 --> 00:04:03.633 Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem. 00:04:03.633 --> 00:04:04.833 The town is packed. 00:04:04.863 --> 00:04:05.943 Roman census. 00:04:05.943 --> 00:04:08.673 Everyone's back to register, no room anywhere. 00:04:08.883 --> 00:04:12.093 Finally, someone takes pity and says, you can sleep with the animals. 00:04:12.303 --> 00:04:17.823 So Mary, exhausted in labor, lies down in the dirt, in the smell, in the mess, and 00:04:17.823 --> 00:04:19.953 they're surrounded by sheep and donkeys. 00:04:20.283 --> 00:04:22.053 Jesus enters the world. 00:04:23.193 --> 00:04:28.413 No sterile hospital room, no epidural, no nurses, just a teenage mom, A terrified 00:04:28.413 --> 00:04:31.173 stepdad and a baby born in the mud. 00:04:32.103 --> 00:04:32.493 Why? 00:04:33.543 --> 00:04:35.013 Why would God choose that? 00:04:35.763 --> 00:04:41.103 Because that's where we are in the mud, in the mess, in the dirt of broken 00:04:41.103 --> 00:04:46.143 relationships, shattered dreams in chaotic lives, and God says, I'll meet you there. 00:04:47.523 --> 00:04:50.343 Then the angels appear, and what do they do first? 00:04:50.343 --> 00:04:51.303 Where do they go? 00:04:51.648 --> 00:04:56.628 Not to Caesar, not Herod, not the priests, but to the shepherds, the lowest of 00:04:56.628 --> 00:04:58.818 the low, the forgotten the outsiders. 00:05:00.288 --> 00:05:02.868 They wr the sky and say, do not be afraid. 00:05:02.868 --> 00:05:06.588 I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 00:05:07.008 --> 00:05:09.528 Today in the town of David, a Savior's been born to you. 00:05:09.528 --> 00:05:10.818 He is the Messiah. 00:05:10.818 --> 00:05:13.638 The Lord God didn't come for the elite. 00:05:13.638 --> 00:05:15.468 He came for the forgotten, the broken. 00:05:15.768 --> 00:05:18.048 The ones who thought they didn't matter. 00:05:18.708 --> 00:05:19.548 He came for you. 00:05:20.553 --> 00:05:22.143 And then Jesus stays. 00:05:23.043 --> 00:05:25.533 He doesn't just show up for the birth scene and leave. 00:05:25.533 --> 00:05:29.913 He stays 30 years in Nazareth, working as a carpenter, sweating, getting blisters, 00:05:29.913 --> 00:05:31.623 dealing with difficult customers. 00:05:32.403 --> 00:05:33.243 Can you imagine? 00:05:33.603 --> 00:05:39.183 Hey, Jesus, you messed up this table, this leg iss too short, and Jesus, the son 00:05:39.183 --> 00:05:41.733 of God, has to sand it down and fix it. 00:05:42.993 --> 00:05:43.413 Why? 00:05:43.923 --> 00:05:46.563 Because God wanted to experience all of it. 00:05:47.193 --> 00:05:50.193 Not just the mountaintop moments, the ordinary, the mundane, 00:05:50.193 --> 00:05:52.203 the frustrating, all of it. 00:05:54.033 --> 00:05:57.903 Hebrews four 15 says, we do not have a high priest who's unable to empathize 00:05:57.903 --> 00:06:02.523 with our weaknesses, but we have one who's been tempted in every way just as we are. 00:06:02.703 --> 00:06:04.083 Yet he did not sin. 00:06:04.953 --> 00:06:10.533 Jesus knows what it's like to be tired, hungry, misunderstood, rejected, alone. 00:06:11.703 --> 00:06:13.863 He is not a distant God who doesn't get it. 00:06:14.043 --> 00:06:17.103 He's Emmanuel God with us in all of it. 00:06:18.153 --> 00:06:19.773 So here's the question for us tonight. 00:06:20.163 --> 00:06:22.953 What does Emmanuel mean for you? 00:06:23.553 --> 00:06:27.153 'cause Christmas isn't just a memory, it's a promise that's still active. 00:06:27.723 --> 00:06:28.983 Let me show you three ways. 00:06:28.983 --> 00:06:31.383 God is with you right now. 00:06:32.973 --> 00:06:34.743 God is with you in your darkness. 00:06:35.208 --> 00:06:36.798 Maybe this Christmas is hard. 00:06:36.798 --> 00:06:37.848 Maybe you're grieving. 00:06:37.848 --> 00:06:38.928 Maybe you are alone. 00:06:39.318 --> 00:06:40.278 Maybe you're broke. 00:06:40.278 --> 00:06:42.108 Maybe you're just tired. 00:06:42.828 --> 00:06:45.138 You're not celebrating, you're surviving. 00:06:46.218 --> 00:06:49.068 Listen to me, God is with you there. 00:06:49.818 --> 00:06:53.928 Isaiah nine, two says, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. 00:06:54.618 --> 00:06:55.938 That's the whole point of advent. 00:06:56.418 --> 00:07:00.408 That's why we lit candles every week to remind us the darkness 00:07:00.408 --> 00:07:02.508 is real, but the light is here. 00:07:04.053 --> 00:07:06.243 God is with you in your ordinary. 00:07:07.263 --> 00:07:10.383 Maybe your Christmas isn't dramatic and maybe it's just regular. 00:07:10.473 --> 00:07:14.043 Same family, same tradition, same leftovers on the 26th. 00:07:14.043 --> 00:07:17.583 Then you think, God, where are you in the ordinary? 00:07:18.363 --> 00:07:22.113 He's there because most of Jesus' life was ordinary. 00:07:24.078 --> 00:07:27.768 Brother Lawrence, a monk from the 16 hundreds, wrote a book called 00:07:27.768 --> 00:07:29.748 The Practice of the Presence of God. 00:07:30.228 --> 00:07:34.338 His whole philosophy, God is in the dishes, God's in the laundry. 00:07:34.698 --> 00:07:37.158 God's in the boring, mundane moments. 00:07:37.728 --> 00:07:39.558 You don't have to wait for a God moment. 00:07:39.618 --> 00:07:43.218 Every moment is a God moment when you're aware of his presence. 00:07:44.538 --> 00:07:47.808 And number three, God is with you in your future. 00:07:48.768 --> 00:07:51.018 Maybe you're scared, uncertain. 00:07:51.663 --> 00:07:54.303 2025 feels overwhelming. 00:07:54.933 --> 00:07:56.643 You don't know how the bills will get paid. 00:07:56.643 --> 00:07:58.863 You don't know if the relationship will survive. 00:07:58.863 --> 00:08:00.513 You don't know if you can keep going. 00:08:01.233 --> 00:08:02.343 Here's what you do know. 00:08:02.763 --> 00:08:04.833 God is with you. 00:08:05.763 --> 00:08:08.763 Jesus', last words to us were, and surely I'm with you, always 00:08:08.763 --> 00:08:10.503 to the very end of the age. 00:08:10.653 --> 00:08:12.723 He didn't say, I'll be with you when things are good. 00:08:13.653 --> 00:08:15.693 He didn't say, I'll be with you when you are good. 00:08:16.233 --> 00:08:17.468 He said, I'll be with you always. 00:08:18.678 --> 00:08:20.748 In the heart, in the dark and the unknown. 00:08:20.898 --> 00:08:23.568 Emmanuel God with us. 00:08:24.498 --> 00:08:25.608 Let me close with this. 00:08:26.568 --> 00:08:28.698 John Chapter one verses four and five. 00:08:28.698 --> 00:08:32.268 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 00:08:32.568 --> 00:08:37.068 The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. 00:08:38.238 --> 00:08:40.338 For five weeks, we've been lighting candles. 00:08:41.178 --> 00:08:42.258 Week one was hope. 00:08:42.258 --> 00:08:44.628 The prophecy candle, the light is promised. 00:08:44.628 --> 00:08:45.828 Week two is peace. 00:08:45.828 --> 00:08:49.098 The Bethlehem candle, the light brings shalom. 00:08:49.518 --> 00:08:50.538 Week three is joy. 00:08:50.538 --> 00:08:53.148 The shepherd's candle, the light brings celebration. 00:08:53.448 --> 00:08:55.788 Week four is love the angel's candle. 00:08:55.788 --> 00:08:57.018 The light came down. 00:08:57.348 --> 00:08:59.988 Week five is Christ the center candle. 00:09:00.168 --> 00:09:01.368 The light is here. 00:09:29.526 --> 00:09:34.326 Every time a bell rings, well, you know the line, but here's the truth. 00:09:34.926 --> 00:09:36.576 Every time you feel alone, remember. 00:09:37.386 --> 00:09:39.996 Emmanuel, every time you feel forgotten. 00:09:39.996 --> 00:09:44.526 Remember Emmanuel, every time you feel like the darkness is winning. 00:09:44.856 --> 00:09:52.416 Remember Emmanuel God with us tonight on Christmas Eve. 00:09:52.596 --> 00:09:55.746 We don't just remember a baby born 2000 years ago. 00:09:55.986 --> 00:09:57.096 We celebrate that. 00:09:57.096 --> 00:10:02.166 The same God who stepped into the mess then is stepping into your mess now. 00:10:03.336 --> 00:10:05.436 He's not waiting for you to clean up. 00:10:05.436 --> 00:10:07.686 He's not waiting for you to have it all together. 00:10:07.746 --> 00:10:12.366 He's here right now in the ordinary, in the darkness, in the struggle, 00:10:12.546 --> 00:10:14.166 and he's saying, I am with you. 00:10:14.376 --> 00:10:15.726 I've always been with you. 00:10:15.906 --> 00:10:17.496 I'll never leave you. 00:10:18.846 --> 00:10:23.436 Merry Christmas friends may you know, truly know that you are not alone. 00:10:24.036 --> 00:10:27.246 A Manuel has come and he's still here. 00:10:28.296 --> 00:10:30.576 Keep it simple and merry Christmas.