For the Love of Christmas III, Emmanuel Everyday

Well, take your outlines out of your notes, if you would. I just want to get right into the message today because there's something that God wants to say to your heart. And I have a powerful testimony. I want to leave ample time for that this morning without being rushed. Let's read the text on the top of your notes. If you're new to us, we use these message notes as a way of just keeping progress, a track of our progress as a people here. And this gives you something to take home and talk about and say, you know, I didn't get that point or I wonder what that meant or wow, that really touched me. Let's read it together. This is from the Gospel of Matthew. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. Well, I'm not sure if things could get more weird than they have in this past year. You know, in the midst of amazing prosperity by any measurement, we've experienced an incredible year. The stock market has wildly oscillated back and forth, up and down 3,000 points or more in the last four months. The Asian economic crisis threatened to bring our economy all the way down just a few months ago. The embassy bombings this summer, they killed hundreds. The return again of Saddam Hussein to the nation's target pairs as sort of the focal point of our frustration with what's happening over there. And then just in the last four days, another state of limited war. The ongoing blight of the presidential scandal that day after day was on our television screens and all the sordid details. And now, for the just second time in the history of our nation, yesterday, a president was impeached from the House of Representatives and the incoming Speaker of the House followed suit from the previous Speaker of the House by resigning. Newsweek, about five months ago, said in a cover story, is it time to worry? Back then, I wasn't sure. Now, I wonder. But I don't want to talk about those issues today, even though they are incredibly important. Because I know a lot of you very well, and some of you a little bit, and I know enough about those of you sprinkled around here today to know that the issues that concern you this Christmas, as serious as these are that I've just mentioned, they're not the ones that you carry day by day. The things that really concern you are issues that you live in every day. Issues about that person you're seated next to, perhaps. Issues about your home, your career. Whether or not you're going to have a partner. Whether or not you're going to have the money you need to meet your obligations. Whether or not the things that you've been wondering about, your job and career, are going to come to pass or not. We all live in a world where there's tension and pressure and stress, and we all have concerns. And this Christmas season, I want to talk about how God addresses those in His presence. It's the angel that appears and says, don't be afraid. I bring you great joy that will be to all the people. You know, angels are something. I'd like to digress here. I can't today because of time. But we sang about the angels were there at creation. They were there when the Messiah was born. They're there as we live life. They're going to be there to welcome us into heaven. Yesterday, there was one in the bathroom. Thank you, Brenda. It was during the practicing for the play. They said, where's Gabriel? I said, oh, he's in the bathroom. I mean, it's kind of a weird thing. But, you know, I checked, and there he was. There was Gabriel. In uniform. And, you see, we need to hear the message of God. We need to know what Emmanuel really means to us today for the concerns that we have. This is what makes Christianity so unique. Those of you who are world religion buffs, just listen for a moment. Those of you who are like really open-minded about all those other religions. You know, I study comparative religions in seminary. I'll tell you one thing I know for sure. There's no faith like your faith if you're a believer in Christ. We've heard a lot about Allah this week, haven't we? And Ramadan and all that. Check your books. Understand the Koran. Allah didn't come to this earth. Allah didn't incarnate himself and accept upon himself the penalty for our sins. Allah's like all the other gods who has this list of things that you've got to do in order to appease and satisfy and please him. And that's the difference between Christianity and Buddhism and Hinduism and all the other religions, so-called, of the world. They're all about trying to please God and Christianity is about God becoming man. God with us. That's why I believe in Jesus. That's why my life has been committed to serving him. And friends, that's what makes us different. And that's why you have a message to take to that world. When you walk out of here today, there are going to be people who don't get it. People you're going to just interface with and need to hear what you know and take for granted. God with us. There's no one like him. And I want to share just for a few moments how the power of his presence, the love that he brings when he manifests his presence, can change your life. His love, to use the old Dodge commercials now, changes everything. When you sense his love, the reality of Emmanuel, whatever you're going through, whatever's causing you concern or worry, changes. He can change your worry into worship and your fear into faith. You know, life has a lot of miseries, but can I tell you one thing? Worry is an optional misery. You can choose to worry or you can choose to do what the Bible says and allow God, Emmanuel, to take your worry for you. Worry isn't something you have to carry around with you. And I said no. Because every day I've got a whole lot of things that could cause me a lot of worry just like you do. I've discovered that worry is nothing more than practical atheism. I know, that's kind of painful to say, but that's what it is. It's basically saying, I don't believe God's really there. I don't believe God. The minute when he said that he would be sufficient for all my needs according to his glorious resources in Christ, I don't believe it when he said that my God can do more than I ever could think or imagine. I don't believe it when he said he's working all things together for good for those who love and are called according to his purpose. So if you're worrying today, you're just acting like an atheist. He said, but it's so hard, Pastor Jay. I mean, I just wonder if God's there sometimes. Listen, God is not only there, he knows what's going to happen to you. He knows what's coming tomorrow. I mean, nothing's going to surprise God in your life. There's not going to be a conversation in the Trinity like, you know, on Monday morning, like, you know, something happens to you and your boss says something and causes some upset in your life. The Spirit doesn't turn to the Son and say, oh, did you know that was going to happen? No, I didn't. I missed that. What's going on there? It doesn't work that way with God. He knows all about you. And more than that, he's already in it for your good. And I want us to look today at just four ways specifically that Emmanuel affects your life. First one is this. The angel said, don't be afraid. God will be with you when you're distressed. God will be with me when I'm distressed. Fill in the blanks in your outline. Count on one thing, friends. This year is going to have some things. This year coming up, it's going to have some things that are going to cause you some stress. Some of you are going to have some real significant things happen that you didn't expect. And others of you may have a pretty light year, but you're still going to hit a few bumps. I went to India last February, as many of you know, I've been here a while. And I shared upon my return how that journey really just jolted me again to realize the gravity of the need in the world today. And I shared how my spirit was troubled by that. But it wasn't two months later, on my birthday, April 21st, that my dad suddenly died. Even though he had some mild heart problems, nothing really all that serious, he just died. No warning. I didn't get to say goodbye to him or anything. And some things happened through the summer, and then just a couple weeks ago, as I shared, my mom fell and broke her kneecap and was in a fair amount of discomfort. And a whole lot of small things I won't bore you with, but I just want to say this. In the midst of all of it, I mean, I never knew, and I'm going to speak to some of the men, some of the men who are close to your dads. When the closest male in your life dies, something happens in you. And you don't know if you have the resources to really rebound from that. And I want to say unequivocally, when I got that phone call from Carol, and she said, you better get over to your house right away, your mom called, and something's happened to your dad. And he's on his way to the hospital, and he never made it to the hospital. I remember thinking as I was driving over to Beaver, thinking, Lord, what am I going to do? God spoke into my life as I was driving over there. He said, just trust me. I'm with you, just trust me. And I can tell you without any kind of qualification, from the moment I heard the news to this day, I've been living in a certain grace I didn't know I would have. God's grace has been sufficient at the funeral service with my family, with my mom. God's grace has been there to carry me through. And friend, God's grace will be there through the deepest, darkest moments of your distress if you just call upon His name. He's there for you. God is there. Look at Isaiah 43, verse 2. When you go through deep waters, how many of you are in deep waters? What do you do in deep waters? You kind of roll up your pant legs, because man, it's deep, and you're in trouble. What does the Lord say? Circle it. I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, not just little puddles, but rivers, when stuff seems to be falling apart, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up. The flames will not consume you. Some of you just need to circle that whole verse and claim it for your life right now, because that's what you feel like. And when you don't sense it happening, you say, well, you know, Jay, I can hear you preaching about it, but I don't feel it. Can I tell you this? It's at that moment that God is the closest to you. And one day you can look back and see right there, His arms were carrying you through. Another thing I can tell you for sure, as life goes on, people are going to disappoint you. Folks are going to leave your life. As a pastor, some of the hardest moments I have are when I hear sort of through the grapevine that such and such a person that I thought was a member of our church and a committed part of our body just left. That's hard for a pastor. But it's not nearly as hard as some of the things that some of you face. Some of you are going to have spouses that leave you this year, or have left you this past year. Some of you, your kids are going to go away and not come home. Some of you are going to be transferred and uprooted and leave all the friends and family that you have in this area. People are going to leave us. But the Bible says in Hebrews 13, 5 that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us. That's what Emmanuel means. God is with you. The first thought in the morning, God, thank you for being with me all night and thank you that you're with me when I wake up. And your last thought at night is, Lord, thanks for walking through this day and thanks that even when I'm sleeping you're going to be right there beside me. What a great God. What an incredible God. The fear of abandonment is a very real thing. If I took a little poll right now, some of you have lived your whole life. You've built a career. Listen, listen. You've built a career of independence because you never wanted to be in a position where somebody would require something of you that would leave you alone. Some men are driven to succeed because they want to be able to say, hey, nobody's telling me what to do. I won't be left alone. I won't be told to leave. I'm going to be in control. And friends, that's not a bad thing to want to succeed. But you need to know that your motivation is that God is with you and he won't fail you or forsake you. Jesus said it this way, in this world you're going to have tribulation but be of good cheer for I've overcome the world. The angel said it this way, fear not or, I'll paraphrase it, when Jesus is near you lose your fear. Say that with me. When Jesus is near you lose your fear. I'm a lot stronger when someone else is with me in the middle of a tough situation. Aren't you? I mean, I can face things on my own. But I love it when I'm with another brother or another friend. I mean, that's a whole other level of confidence. I went to India, as I mentioned, in February and I took with me Pastor Jeff Small, our Family Ministries Pastor, and Charlie Beck, our Missions Director, as partners on this trip. Now, they thought they were going to teach and so on. Actually, they were going along to protect me. We ventured into some places in India that were pretty rough. There are a lot of places we went that you just didn't know what was going to happen. You didn't know what the food or water or anything was going to be like. And every time we'd sit down for a meal, I had this little strategy. Charlie and Jeff are big eaters. They'd plop down a big plate of food in front of them and they'd plop it in front of me and I'd take my fork or sometimes other utensils like fingers and move it around and I'd start talking to my host and I'd watch Charlie and Jeff eat. They ate for five minutes. I said, hey, it must be pretty good. It's fine. And I'd eat it. Little did they know that they were screening the food for me as we walked through this entire trip. Jeff, try this bottle of water. How is it? Well, fine. Okay, good. I'll try some. But seriously, the greatest thing on that trip was to have Dr. Abraham Poffin be our guide. Every place we went, he went with us. I mean, he made sure our visas got cleared. He made sure the train tickets were in order and the plane tickets. He made sure that the food was edible and that the water was drinkable. He made sure that when people got a little upset with us that he stepped in and just kind of quashed some of the unsettledness. It was wonderful having a partner everywhere I went in a place that I didn't know about. And I want you to know, friend, Emmanuel means Jesus Christ will be your partner. He's your partner. If you can read that bottom. He's your partner in life. The second thing that Emmanuel means is that God will be with me when I feel inadequate. Ever feel inadequate? Ever feel like you're just not quite what you need to be? The angel announced a Savior. Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He's Christ the Lord. Now, when I hear the word Savior, I automatically think as a Savior from what? Sin. I think a Savior. I need a Savior from my sin. And may I just pause here and say, you know, in the midst of what we've been observing in our nation in the last hours, one thing I will say of value to me in all this is watching this nation with all of its technological accomplishments, with all of its intellectual prowess, and all the rest. We are coming face-to-face with one thing. I feel maybe you don't agree, but I think many of you do. We're coming face-to-face with our limitations. When people come on television and say things like, I have never seen chaos like this in the 30 years that I've been covering news in Washington, D.C. I've never seen our nation so adrift. It's telling me one thing. If intellectual accomplishment, if technological achievement, if brains and money could fix things, friends, we'd have no problems in America. It's not going to happen. We need a Savior. And if anything, the brains and accomplishment has simply sort of enabled us to gloss our sin a little more carefully than before. The word, however, Savior, or to save, sozo in the Greek, and I made a special slide for this last night, and it's not on your outline, but you might want to jot it at the bottom down there. It means something a lot more than just being saved from sin. As big as that is, it means this, of material and temporal deliverance from danger and suffering, apprehension and need. In other words, to be saved means that God is going to take care of you and deliver you from danger, suffering, apprehension and need. That's what the word means. It's a holistic thing. To be saved means God takes his entire blessing and carries you up in it. Everything that he would supply in Christ becomes yours. That's what it means, literally, to have a Savior. That's why the angel said, it's good news of great joy for all the people, and it's now. Look at Matthew 6, 31. Don't worry at all about having enough. Your heavenly Father already knows the things you need, and he will give them to you if you give him first place in your life. Circle, don't worry at all. Don't worry at all. That's pretty tough to do. And that's exactly what God says. I struggle with some things, friends, because I don't feel adequate. But the Bible says I'm not to worry about them. And I want to just open my heart for a moment and share with you something that I feel, you know, worship is God's way of bringing us into that posture where we put him first. Now, you can worship him here on Sunday morning, to be certain, but you can also worship him at home. You can worship him in your car. You can push your chair back from your desk and worship him in your office. You can worship him wherever you are. It's a wonderful thing to turn your worry into worship. I had a great experience this week. I've been privileged as a dad in a couple of settings, a year or so ago with my other son, David, down at his school, and then just recently this week with Jonathan up at Grove City. I sat in while my son led chapel worship, four or 500 students, and I was there with my son leading me in worship. What a great experience. What a wonderful thing. And it was neat because in that experience, all these students were coming, not because they were getting their chapel card punched, but because they had finals, they had burdens, they had things they were concerned about, and they were taking time out of their schedule to turn their worries into worship. Maybe we can learn from the students. Maybe we can take time out from our crazy schedule right now and get on our knees and say, Lord, I'm worried about my family coming into town, and I know we're going to have some battles, and I'm afraid if I tell them what's really going on in my life right now, they're going to, and just turn your worry into worship. Let me share one thing I feel inadequate about. I mean, I feel inadequate as your pastor, and really conveying to you what a significant crossroads that we're in right now as a church. The past couple of months have made extremely clear to me that God wants to do something extraordinary right now in the life of our church. Those of you who have been here a long time, Carl and I see some of you have been here a long time. The Lord gave us a prophecy in our early years. He said, I will send you all the people that you'll care for. The condition was, we provide care. The Lord said, you care for them, I'll keep sending them. We have never had to go out and try to generate interest. There's always been a lot of interest. We just inform people of what's here, and they come. But right now, God wants us to see that that care means physically, personally, spiritually, meeting the needs of people. And I am wondering if maybe some of us are just kind of content with the level that we've reached. And I am feeling inadequate. I feel kind of like Moses. Lord, I don't have the words to tell the people in this church where you want us to go. You've got more for us than we've experienced. We need to go on as a people. We're not just to sort of encamp right here and say, this is good enough. It isn't, friends. As you're going to hear in this testimony in a moment, there are people, just like these young women you're going to hear from, who are searching for something they don't even know about. And we have, by God's grace, something profound to share with them. But it's going to take all of us. All of us want to be part of a dynamic, spirit-led, life-changing, prevailing church. But it takes commitment, it takes initiative, it takes resources, and it takes faith. And I wish I could sit down with every one of you here today personally and say, are you on board? Do you understand what's at stake? That eternal destiny is hanging in the balance, and you can make a difference in that. And what concerns me the most is this. I don't know if you realize how important you are in that process, in that equation. Whatever your role, if you're committed, if you've found your place of being identified in a group, if you're giving of your gifts in ministry and serving someone, and if you're supporting the ministry with your resources, friends, we can have an enormous impact. But if we sit back and think the guy down the aisle is going to do it, hey, this is a big church. Someone else will take care of the need. Can I tell you something? We will be stalled in our tracks. And I looked out my window yesterday and realized the whole world is changing around us. And we here at North Way better see that this is our time to move forward. It's our time. And every one of you have something to say about it. Every one of you have a gift. Look at this text out of 1 Corinthians 12 and the message. Paul writes and he says, the way God designed our bodies, these physical bodies, is a model for understanding our lives together as a church. Every part depended on every other part. The parts we mention and the parts that we don't. Every part works together. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ's body. Read this next part with me. That's who you are. You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your part mean anything. Your part is important. Never forget that. If we have 20,000 people, your part is still important. And it's really important right now that everyone who calls this their church home realizes your part is important. In your group, in your gifts, in your giving, and in your faith, in your prayer to God. It's so important. I appeal to you. Hear what I'm saying. This is a crossroads. Number three, God will be with me not just when I'm distressed or feel inadequate, but God will be with me when I'm afraid. Boy, this could take the rest of the message and two more messages, but I just want to touch a couple things here. In the Christmas story, the shepherds were afraid because they encountered something they didn't understand, something unexplainable, something truly supernatural. And it's remarkable to me the number of times when people encounter God, how their number one response is fear. Uh-oh. I see something I don't understand. I'm out of there. I don't like it. I'm out of there. I'm uncomfortable. I'm out of there. Our testimony here at North Way is hundreds of people come here at one time and then they leave. They don't listen, really, to what God might be saying to them. What is that? Well, it's fear. It's fear of being caught up in emotionalism. It's fear of the unknown, perhaps. It's fear of something that they think they've stereotyped as being really not for them. I mean, all of us wrestle with that to some degree. The presence of God, somehow, creates in people a certain fear and an expression of certain kinds. I mean, it's hard. Hard for some people. I watched yesterday on television. I was just kind of resting before dinner. And I watched this one guy on TV. You might probably know if I mentioned his name. But he was in a men's meeting of some kind. And he was dressed in battle fatigues. And he had Jeeps and different kind of armament up on the platform and shell casings. And he was talking about doing war with the devil. And I was thinking, I wouldn't be comfortable there. The guy's going on and on. And the Spirit of the Lord just knocked me on the head and said, You know what? That's what some people think you're like. It's all relative, friends. So understand that. And God really humbled me with that. And when I started to listen to his message, he was saying some really good things. See, it's not really about the externals. It's about what's going on in the heart. And our worship, our worship is about giving God what's in our heart. And I want to say, praise God, that many of you have come a long way in worship. You've come a long way in understanding to give God your fears and open your heart up just a bit. I've watched some of you men, especially. Some of the ladies, too. The first time you came in here, it was like you were diving for... Hold on to this seat right in front of me. I'm not moving around. A year later, I see you do one of these. There you go. Look around you. And then two years later, wow, are you freed up. You're like to hear... Maybe one day before God, when you stand before the creator of the world, you think you might just go like this. Oh, Lord, I worship you. I surrender to your name. That's all it is. You say, well, does that make me more holy? No. It's just what the Bible says, though, to lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. That's all it is. It's just a biblical expression of worship. It's not a weird thing. It's a biblical thing. And it's our fears that keep us from that and the release that that brings. Also, there's some of us that are afraid to talk to people about the Lord. And what a great time to talk to people. Do you know when you walk out today, you're sort of a walking billboard for the Lord? Those little cards we gave you, those little... That's an opportunity for you to share with someone. I was in conversation with a businessman here in the North Hills. This was a totally business-related issue. And I felt the Lord nudging me to talk to him about Christmas Eve. And he knows I'm a pastor. He knows all that. He knows where I work. And he said to me... We were ending the conversation. I felt the Lord say to me, tell him about Christmas Eve. And I felt myself saying, no, he's expecting me to do something like that. But I did it anyhow. I said, well, you know, by the way, we've got five Christmas Eve services. Would you like to come? Love to have you. He said, well, when are they? I said, he said, I'd love to come. Send me the information. I'll be there. And he told me what service he's going to come. He said, I'd love to meet you afterwards. I said, you would? He said, yes. Wow, wow. Terrific. You see, just open your mouth. Just let God use you. Don't let fear keep you from God's best. You don't know who you're going to touch. And I want you to hear a testimony of someone, actually, two women whose lives have been really changed because someone reached out to them. And God met them at their time of need. Emmanuel, in his love, surrounded them. Let's welcome, as they come up, Julie McGuirk and Michelle Polosky and the families that come to share. Give them a warm welcome, would you please? Thank you so much for staying. I know it's a long haul. God bless you. Thanks. Good morning. When my husband of more than 12 years was diagnosed with terminal cancer, I was devastated, frightened, and numb. I did a lot of praying for strength and was surprised at the sense of peace that filled me. I've been raised Catholic and was a devoted churchgoer until my parents separated when I was a teenager. Then I drifted away from organized religion. Greg was raised a born-again Christian but was also non-practicing. We had never prayed together or attended church except for weddings, christenings, and funerals. My father-in-law is a Christian preacher. He continually invited me to be water baptized by him, but I always declined. It just seemed so final. And besides, I had been baptized as a baby in a Catholic church. He explained to me the difference. Someone else makes the decision for you as a baby. As an adult, it's your decision and your commitment to God. I finally accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and was baptized about a month after Greg was diagnosed. When I came up out of the water, I was so full of joy I thought I would burst. How could I be feeling this way at the most tragic time of my life? It was crazy. I was later taught that the joy I felt was me being filled with the Holy Spirit. At this point, we still hadn't prayed out loud together until a very compassionate hospice nurse helped us. After that first time, we were able to pray regularly. It was such an incredibly intimate and special time. I will always cherish those moments, and I encourage all couples to share this with one another. I know our last days together were made more joyful and fulfilling because of the closeness we shared with God. I am at peace with his passing because he opened his heart to the Lord. All of my time was devoted to taking care of Greg, but I knew I wanted to go back to church when I was able. I just wasn't sure where. About four years ago, Greg's cousin, Carol, invited me to this progressive church she attended. When I went, everyone seemed too loud, and they were waving their arms and praising God. It didn't feel comfortable to me. I was sure I'd never go back. Greg's cousin had helped to care for him during his illness, and she invited me to attend the Easter pageant here at North Way. I thought I'd never try again. I was so moved by the performance and the friendliness of the people that I knew this was the place for me. I never really sat down to read the Bible or study Scripture. When I started taking the Alpha course this summer, it helped me to understand so completely God's unconditional love for me and Jesus' sacrifice for my sins. When I was taught about the Holy Spirit, it explained the strength and peace that had filled me during Greg's illness. I was so deeply moved by all of the love and support from mine and Greg's family and friends. It helped us get through some of the most unimaginably difficult days of our lives. I knew that all of these people were praying for us, some for the first time in years. I have learned to look for the good in all things, even in the worst moments of my life. My sister moved in with me after Greg's death. Together we have shared good and bad times, to put it mildly. I went through a period of depression, so when she saw how excited I was to go to church every Sunday and how much I looked forward to the Alpha classes, she decided to see what it was all about. She started attending services in June, and we just finished the Discovery course together. Everyone we meet here is so wonderful. I am happy to say that we are members of this church and belong to a great cell group. My faith in God grows stronger every day, and I thank Him for moving in my life with such love and mercy. I have recently started dating a wonderful Christian man who encourages me to read my Bible, study Scripture, and pray with him. I have great hope for the future, and I thank God for putting me where I am today, before all you good people. God is there, always by our side, waiting for us to call on Him. We only have to say the Word, and He will fill us with His Holy Spirit. We may not always know why He does the things He does in our lives, but if we have faith and trust His love, everything will work out. I know. Thank you for letting me share my story. Up until a year ago, I had always had what I thought was a normal life. I had an active social life and worked a full and part-time job. I would pray once in a while and go to Catholic church when my schedule allowed, but it always seemed like something was missing. Last October, when my sister told me Greg had terminal cancer, I couldn't believe it. He was too young and healthy to be sick. They had worked so hard for so many years to build a loving, strong relationship. It just couldn't end this way. I couldn't even begin to imagine the fear and pain they felt. My heart ached because I loved them both so much. They had always been there for me through all m