Ten Truths For the New Millennium IX, The Hope of Christmas

Pull that little outline out of there, and if you're a guest today, what we try to do is give you some scripture and some opportunity to just jot a few notes down so that when you leave here today you'll have something to discuss and maybe even investigate on your own a little more thoroughly. Well, the universal symbol of Christmas is light. Lights are everywhere. Look at this tree. Isn't it magnificent? I don't know how they did that. My little six-foot tree is like this. It's just leaning to the side, and I was under there with my neighbor Mac yesterday, and I couldn't get that thing to go, so look at that. It's just gorgeous. It's a symbol. The light is a symbol. You know, it starts in October in the stores, and then in November the city has light-up night, and then our neighbors put their lights up in December, and the passers-by get there this week. We'll have our lights up, and you know, we're getting there. If I get it done by Christmas, I consider it a victory. Lights are everywhere. Lights are what Christmas is really about. The scripture says that the light shines in the darkness. What darkness is it talking about? It's talking about the darkness of human pain and suffering. It's talking about the darkness of our loneliness, and our loss, and our anger, and our addictions, and our separation, and the Bible says that in some cases the darkness has not yet understood it. I want you to grab a hold of that this morning, Church. Listen. What does it mean when it says the darkness hasn't understood it? It means that in some cases there are parts of our lives where the light has been shining, but not yet been received. My prayer for the next 25 minutes or so, 30 minutes at the most, is that there'll be some areas of your life where light is going to shine, and you'll open to it, and what has been dark will receive the light of God's revelation, and God's truth. See, light is a very powerful thing, and a very persistent thing. Light was central for the first Christmas. The angels set up this dazzling light show, and they told the shepherds, you know, glory to God in the highest, and in peace, and goodwill toward men, and then it says that wise men followed this brilliant light in the form of a star that you'll see somewhat reenacted on Christmas Eve at the services. From Genesis to Revelation, light is a major theme of the Bible. Now, this is just incidental, but, and it's no great, you know, new revelation, but I just, in studying, I was reminded of this. What are the very first words attributed to God, the very first words that God spoke? Let there be, yeah, not, you know, not coffee in the morning. No, let there be light, and the very last words of the Bible recorded that Jesus spoke in the book of Revelation are, you're gonna learn something then today, right? Yes, I am coming soon. Now, just before that, he said, I am the bright and morning star. The next phrase, the last recorded phrase of Jesus' lips, yes, I'm coming soon. Light from, from Genesis to Revelation, that's what the Bible is about. It's light invading darkness. It's God streaming as eternal light into our eternal darkness. God is light. The Bible said in him, there is no darkness at all. His light is what lights heaven. There is no sun in heaven. There's just the glory of God's own light. So brilliant is that light, the Bible says in Revelation, that when John looked into the face of Jesus, it was brighter than the sun, and he fell at his feet as though dead. I want you to know that I believe that the core nature of God is about light, and that eternal separation from God is about darkness. That's why Jesus came in and said, I am the light of the world. But how does that light affect you? Now, you know what, this could be one of those themes, and you say, well, that's cool. I, I, I agree. I mean, light's important. But how does it make a difference in your world today, the world that Greg sang about a moment ago? How does light get into those parts of us that haven't been changed? Well, the answer is, listen, it won't get there unless you make room for it. The knowledge that there is light isn't enough. The attitude of faith on your part to receive the light into your life, where you need it today, is what this message is about. It's receiving light into the portions of your life where darkness has begun to encroach. Why did Jesus come, really? Because the world was very, very dark. But more than that, he came because in your life and in mine, there is darkness that's always waiting to snuff out our life. He came to bring light into our lives, and he did it in some specific ways. I want you to just jot these down. Number one, Jesus came to light our darkness by, number one, letting us know that God loves us. Letting us know that God loves us. Do you recall that the prophets were silent? Prior to the birth of Jesus, for 400 years, God did not speak to the prophets of Israel. Now, that's something that's very important, because you see, God gave Israel as the nation through whom he would bring the Messiah, and he had spoken through the centuries, through these prophetic men and women. But for 400 years, prior to the birth of Jesus, everything was silent. Imagine what the people of God were thinking. Imagine if you didn't hear a word from the Lord for 400 years. Well, I mean, you wouldn't live that long, you know. But imagine if you didn't hear anything your whole life, and your grandfather hadn't heard, and his grandfather hadn't heard. Would you wonder if God was even there? Would you begin to wonder if God even cared about you? And so it's very crucial to know that what God said after 400 years of silence is, I so loved the world that I sent my only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish. God loves his world. Friends, I know this is, you know, somewhat of a platitude for many of us. We hear it so often, it just kind of rolls off of us. But when Jesus spoke to the priest Zechariah and said that there's going to become a Messiah, and his love for you is going to change you forever. I mean, that was incredibly good news. The most important thing you need to know about God isn't found in nature. It can't be discovered by reading books about it. It can only be experienced by opening to it. Look at the scripture on your outline. God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us. Listen, you can talk, talk, talk about love. It doesn't matter till you show it. And Jesus demonstrated in Philippians 2 says, when he left the glories of his eternal kingdom, he was secure at the Father's right hand and he left all of heaven's splendor and he took what is called the seven steps of humiliation from the Father's side to the ignominious death of a cross. I mean, what more could God say about his love? What wonderful love he has for us. And you need to receive that personally. You've got to respond. Otherwise, it's just head knowledge. Head knowledge does not change you. It's got to come from your heart. Number two, Jesus came to light our darkness by illustrating what God is really like. Illustrating what God is really like. You know, as our culture and the world actually explodes in its ability to communicate more and more, individual ideas are becoming acknowledged in strange sorts of ways as being, hey, this must be right. Did you read last week where two guys got on the internet, kind of conspired together to talk up a particular stock that they had purchased for 80 cents a share of a particular company. And they sent 50 emails to each other in a couple of chat rooms. That's where investors kind of hang out. I don't know if I understand all that, but they're doing all this and talking back and forth about this great company. And they pumped up the reputation of this stock over the course of about a week. And over one particular weekend, the buzz got out that this must be a great company. And the stock went from 80 cents a share to $8 a share. Well, a week later, after two weeks of buzzing in these chat rooms all over the country, the stock went up to $16 a share. The only problem was the company was defunct. The doors were closed and locked. And it was a big scam. They just made it up. And they took their 80 cent a share stock that they had bought huge amounts of and sold it for $16 a share. Pretty smart, huh? No, actually pretty dumb, because the SEC caught them and they're in jail now. But it does show the power of just talking something up. Listen, when it comes to spiritual things, when it comes to, if I may use the word, religion, have you ever had conversations with people and they said something like, well, that's fine for you. I'm glad you believe that about the Bible. I'm glad you believe that Jesus, but I believe this. This is my idea of God. This is what I think God is like. And then they describe, you know, it's this heavenly good old God up there that, you know, he just sort of sits back in his throne and, you know, you don't bother me, God, and I won't bother you kind of mentality. And people have these very personal ideas. They say, this is what God's like for me. And then if you have any courage whatsoever, you commit the unpardonable sin of the culture and you just challenge that a little bit. You become, here's the word, intolerant of anybody's crazy idea. You say, well, wait a minute. Where'd you get that idea? Well, I just made it up. Well, why should I believe that you have any idea of what's right? I mean, who are you to make up what's right about God? And if this person has any sense of sort of conviction, they should turn back to you and say, well, why do you think you're right? And I hope at that point you don't crawl under your seat and say, well, I don't know because Pastor Jay said so. I hope at that point you say something like, well, the reason I believe what I do about God, the reason I believe it's right is because, number one, the most studied book, the most documented book from antiquity, the most widely distributed book in the world for the last 2,000 years, the Bible, says so. The only person to have come back from the dead of his own will to demonstrate that what he said was true is the person who's the object of this book, Jesus Christ, and that for 2,000 years lives have been changed all around the world, millions of lives believing the same thing that I believe. And by the way, I can tell you for certain he's in my life right now. That's why I believe it. Now, friends, that is convicting. That's going to take someone from saying, well, this is my idea, to saying, wow. It's fascinating to me. You know, science changes all the time, and I appreciate science. I was a science major. I was a chemistry major in college. I know how science works. But science changes. Scientists used to tell us that the world is flat, and if we sail too far, we'd fall off of it. Guess what? They discovered that wasn't exactly right. They said, well, that was a long time ago. Well, you know, not that long ago, science told us that butter was bad for you. You better eat margarine. Now, what are they telling you? No, no, that margarine is not good. Eat the butter. That's really better for you. Well, if you fall down and hurt your back, you better climb into bed for a week or ten days and not move and let things settle down. Now, doctors, I think, would tell you it's better to just take a little bit of rest and get up and get moving as quickly as you can. I mean, it's fine to change, but they change all the time. Well, beta-carotene last week I read. Well, you know, if you had took a lot of beta-carotene, and that would go after all the free radicals, then you'd be more cancer resistant. I say, well, you know what? You could eat, you know, beta-carotene like it was water, and it wouldn't affect you. Now, science changes. Aren't you glad that you believe something? Do you believe that Jesus Christ was the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that this isn't different today than it was last week or six weeks ago, and it's not going to be different tomorrow? Do you believe that? That's exciting stuff. That's the gospel that we hold out to people. That's why when someone says to me, this is what I believe, I say to them, well, I appreciate what you believe, but I don't believe it's right. Well, that's not very tolerant. Well, you know, to me, as I said about six or eight weeks ago, truth is a higher value than tolerance. That's why I put on your outline what Jesus said. He said, look at it. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. This is why I was born and came into the world, to tell people, you know, another idea about God. You shall know someone's idea about God, and they will say, no, you shall know what? The truth. Friends, what we're talking about here today is the truth. And I don't say that with any sense at all of pride, as if I'm better than everybody. I'm saying it with conviction, because we need to understand that in our culture, you will be challenged about what is the truth, and you need to know why you believe it. See, the disciples 2,000 years ago believed it. The church fathers built upon it. For centuries, it's been followed, and it's the same now, and it's going to be the same until Jesus comes again. The question is, do you believe it? Do you know that Jesus shows you what the Father is like? Billy Graham once said, when I want to know what God would do, I just take a long look at what Jesus did. Boy, is that a healthy thing to do. Study what Jesus did, not to imitate it, but just to know him, so that you can be in touch with what the Son of God would do. You know, interestingly, Jesus came to reveal the Father as a little baby. Has that ever mystified you? Ever wondered, why a baby? I remember walking into a Hindu temple, where Vishnu and, I can't remember the other two gods, of the little triangulate that they have, and these are contorted, disfigured, weird shapes and images that hundreds of millions of Hindus worship, amongst other gods. And I look at that, and it strikes fear. It's weird. And I think, we worship a God who revealed himself in the flesh as an innocent little baby. I say, Lord, thank you. Why? Because I don't, I'm not afraid of a baby. I embrace it. How many of you love babies? How many grandparents can't wait to get your hands on yours this Christmas season, huh? God chose to come as a baby to illustrate what the Father was like. He could have written his name on the sky and said, I'm the one, you all follow me, and by the way, the Bible says when he comes the second time, every eye will see him. Everyone will know him. So we're in this season right now, where just those who come can lay hold of him. But one day, he will be revealed. You know, there's a rising interest these days in spiritual things. Wall Street Journal just a few weeks ago said that church attendance in downtown New York City is up 300% this year. Mostly among professionals who are in search of meaning in the new millennium. Movies like The End of Days, which I'm not recommending you see, but have apocalyptic kind of themes to it. There's a lot of interest in the supernatural. But just like in a gold rush, there's fool's gold, in a God rush, there are fool's gods. And you, listen, and the people you love and the people you care about need to be warned that not everything, not every fad, not every revelation that comes along is from God. Jesus came to show us the way to the Father. So don't let yourself be deceived. Number three, the third thing that his light does, his light guides our steps. You know, for many of us, the next steps in our journey aren't clear. We're not sure where our life is going. Things are kind of dark in our world. You may not be spiritually secure enough to know where to go. You might be in a relationship that is unclear. Nothing is worse than groping in the dark, trying to find your way. Is it? Isn't it true? I mean, it's terrible. Because you wonder, am I going to make it or not? Um, ever get up in the morning and try to get dressed, you know, be sensitive to your spouse and try to get dressed in the dark and realize you put on two different shoes? Some months ago, I went into our garage. It was late in the evening. It was dark outside. The garage door went up, you know, and the light came on and pulled the car in and pushed the button. The door came back down and I started looking for some CDs and tapes that I left in the backseat. And I had to shuffle around more than I thought I would and finally got out of the car and started to walk. I made two steps and the light went out in the garage. So there I am with this handful of CDs and tapes. And I'm saying, I've walked that little bit over to the door, you know, thousands of times. I know exactly where the end of the car is. I go around the end of the car like this and boom, my foot hit the tire of the tractor. Oh, painful. Went a few more steps and Carol pulled the box out earlier that day. I fell right over the box, right in my face. Down on the floor, all the CDs and tapes. I'm thinking at this time, you know, glory to God in the highest. This is not how I planned it. I'm groping. I mean, it's still totally dark. I have no clue. So I just stay in my hands and knees and crawl the rest of the way to the door and open it up and hit the light. Yeah, well, that's a terrible thing, isn't it? I mean, darkness, if you don't know where you're going, you're going to be in trouble. I mean, it's even true of the animal world. Those of you who've been here a while have heard me talk about our chocolate lab tucker. There he is. Remember him? Well, Wednesday night, late in the evening, about 8.30 or 9 o'clock, he'd been in a lot that day. And when it came time to go out, Carol went to let him out. And the phone rang and he wasn't about to be held back, so he just went bolting out. It was one of those awkward moments. He just went out and he heard a dog barking. He went across the street. And when he came to come back, he encountered a vehicle on the road. And he was hit by a car. A chocolate lab in the middle of the night? There's just no way you're going to see this dog. Tucker's having a bad day. That's sort of what he looks like right now, actually. But he's going to make it. He's got a long road back. But animal lovers are having a real heartburn here. But it's true. It's painful. If it hadn't been dark, I think he'd have been fine. But it was dark. Now, much more seriously, what about the darkness in your life? What about the parts of you? Call it, as some do, the dark days of your soul. Where maybe outwardly, you know, 99's been a great year. Maybe you set new records in your business. Maybe everything's going just great in your own planning. But personally, inside, underneath, maybe it's been a year of disappointment or distress. Maybe it's been a year of, for some of you, divorce. Others of you have faced, for the first time, serious diseases. Some of you have gone into depression. Some of you have had doubts about whether or not what you believe even makes sense anymore to you. And some of you, sadly, have faced death for the first time in a close relative. And my heart goes out to you who've lost loved ones. And this is their first Christmas without them. You know what? A lot of us are hurting today. That's the truth. You might be asking, well, where is this light? I mean, I don't feel it. I don't see it. Jesus said, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Ask the Lord to bring that light in on that specific part of your life. Hit the switch of faith and receive what God is providing. Look what the scripture says. I'm the light of the world, so if you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness. For living light will flood your path. And the peace that Christ gives guides you in the decisions that you must make. Friends, sometimes life can be very difficult. It can press in. It can confuse you. Your heart can start to break. What you need to do is open to the light of Christ. I want you to hear a testimony this morning of a man whose life, by most external standards, was going along just fine. And he had the career of his dreams and was moving in the direction that everyone would have said is great. But inside, some things weren't right. And it took a real difficult moment in his life. Let's give a warm welcome to Mark Lodeco as he comes to share his testimony. Hi, Mark. Thanks for staying. I was asked to give this testimony to you today for those closest to me know me as basically a shy person. I may be loud. I may be funny and seemingly gregarious. But I'm not likely to voluntarily address a large group of people, let alone a spiritually knowledgeable audience. Only to glorify God did I agree. One truth you may see running throughout my story is that He provides for all our needs. I received one of my earliest gifts from my Father in Heaven in 1958 when He provided me with wise and loving parents. You may see this as good fortune as I did then. But now I realize that apparently I needed to be surrounded by all the wisdom He could muster and have it provided as quickly as possible. He also knew that to understand His love, I would need a concrete example of unconditional love. So He gave me my earthly father. He then provided a religious education and experience through my school years, which was to leave nothing to chance. As a very young adult, I met another precious gift, my wife Anne, my next most reliable advisor and confidant. And we proceeded with family life and the daily needs of that family. Sometime in 1980, when we were attempting to simplify our New York experience by moving to Oregon, our Heavenly Father was waiting for us with a small church in the middle of a national forest. The local population was so tiny that no single denomination could expect more than a few on Sunday. So Christians from many backgrounds joined together to worship, pray, study, and be led by a loving and wise pastor. That is where Anne and I, knowingly and with an adult understanding of what we were really doing, first accepted Christ into our lives. Immersed in that small community, we easily kept Christ in our daily lives. Then we decided to return to New York to receive another of God's provisions, the generosity of our families. They would help support us as I completed my education. As so often happens, we again became preoccupied with the daily struggles and spent less than even an hour each week aware of God's presence. I was an ember away from the fire, and I quickly cooled. School turned into a career, prosperity turned into material accumulation, and I was soon awash in means, pleasant diversion, and a gaping hole in the pit of my stomach that might only be filled by a desperate search for meaning. Fortunately, Anne is similarly wired to seek out meaningful pursuits, and we reminded each other occasionally of the temporary nature of all that we had. But I hadn't yet turned back to the God who provided all of that good fortune through his gifts. I recently went through what I now realize was a combination of a midlife crisis, a period of hubris, and an opportunity to reach again for the loving arms of my Heavenly Father. During the lean months of starting a new practice here in Pittsburgh, Anne lost confidence that I would ever again spend time attending to our spiritual needs. On top of that, I allowed her to personally bear some of the consequences of moving in a business world where decisions are often made without sensitivity to the human cost. Anne wasn't home one night when I returned from work. She went to a place where she felt safe. She needed to pray and focus on her spiritual life, which she had so compromised in support of my immediate business concerns. I found myself alone in that house, looking at all the stuff I had accumulated. Suddenly, none of it meant anything to me. I no longer cared about the design features of the patio or the secular wisdom in the books in my study. Anne was gone. I had squandered God's perfect gift for me. I had failed to protect the wife of my youth as I had been instructed in Malachi 2.15, let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. It took a stranger, when we weren't talking about God, to remind me with surprise in his eyes, don't you know the priority should be God, your family, and then your business? Only two other times in my life had I felt so desperate. Once, when the moving van I was driving with Anne and the boys in it rolled over during a snowstorm. And again, when my Heavenly Father called my earthly father home without warning. Here I was again, reduced to face my own limits. I remembered how I responded to those early moments of desperation, and I did the same thing again. I fell to my knees, and I called on the name of Jesus Christ. I asked him to forgive me and to protect Anne wherever she was. I knew she must have been in a great deal of pain to leave so suddenly. I prayed that she would be comforted by our Lord. I cried myself to sleep for four nights as I read how my Heavenly Father loved me so much that he sent his only son to die for me, an ingrate. Anne finally called when she arrived on our favorite stretch of the Oregon coast. I dropped everything to join her on a critically needed sabbatical. I had to reorder my priorities. I even found myself answering God's call to service there when one of our fellow churchgoers needed my medical expertise as she battled cancer. She and her family, Anne and I, the whole church were all amazed at how God had provided a way where there was no way for her to have access to my input in her treatment. I just had to submit to the call and I could receive the joy of service again. Anne and I have since been provided with the warming fire of God's church. We attended the Alpha program here and were moved to then attend the Holy Spirit weekend. I have since found that regular contact with other Christians has a renewing effect on my daily outlook. This body of believers has some unique opportunities for study, service, fellowship like our cell group, children's Sunday school, pioneers. By just seeking out those opportunities, we have been able to refocus on God's provision and his total sufficiency for us in our daily walk. My family and I have been the recipients of God's grace and love through his people. Glory be to our Father. Thank you. Thanks, Mark and Anne, for sharing your lives with us and reminding us that we all need the guidance of God, the light of his truth on our pathway. The next thing that God does by his light is to heal our hurts. I think Mark helped us all to be reminded that there are times when we are hurting. That nothing, humanly speaking, can answer what Mark described as that deep, gnawing ache in your soul. Friends, that's something that's more prevalent than perhaps any of us realize. We may look okay on the outside, but on the inside we're searching for something that's going to answer to that deep need. The good news today is that there's not a single hurt out there. Listen, there's nothing that you've been through that Jesus can't heal. There's nothing that you've had to endure. There's no betrayal or denial or pain that God can't heal by the power of Jesus. There's no loneliness. There's no loss that he cannot restore. You know, this week one of our pastoral team members had a friend from his former church that committed suicide. And in the note that he left, he said he couldn't bear to go through another Christmas with the pain that he felt moving in on his life. And I thought to myself, if only somebody could have somehow gotten through to him with the light of the hope of Christ's healing power. Scripture says that Jesus came to redeem us from the curse of the law. Look at the next verse in your outline. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. What is that about? How is the law, is the law of God a curse? Are we cursed because we know the Ten Commandments? No, it's not talking about that law. It's talking about the law of sin and death that's at work in every one of our lives. All of us, if we're honest, would admit to the fact that we have something in us that's inclined toward evil. Something that sort of naturally leans toward moving away from God rather than to him. It's a law that's at work in our fallen nature. And it's prevailing in our culture as a whole. And friends, it's a curse. It works its way into our lives. How many of you are already making plans for a great Christmas, but you believe, underneath you have a fear that your Christmas is going to melt down. You're going to have these awful arguments and these terrible times of tension and pain. Why? Because there's a curse moving against your Christmas. This curse is out there. It set in motion when Adam first rebelled and it's there now. And we buy into it. You know, in John chapter 3 that we've often heard quoted, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believed in him would not perish but have eternal life. Listen to what the next verses say. This is the verdict. Life has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be plainly seen that what he has done, he has been done through God. The fact is, friends, that some people will not want to go to God because they don't want their deeds to be exposed. And so they'd rather nurse them in the darkness than come into the light. When all they need to do is come and use, to use the words that Mark used, to surrender themselves to the loving, healing light of Christ. And may God give us the grace to extend that to the many people that we'll encounter in this next week who don't know that light. Whatever Satan would do to destroy us, whatever he would do to wreak destruction or discouragement or death upon us, light for healing, light for redemption has come into the world. You know, it's interesting how light is being used routinely in medicine these days, isn't it? I mean, laser surgery is growing by leaps and bounds. There are different light therapies that are out there. But the greatest healing light in all the world is the light of Jesus. And that light needs to be shining in the souls of men and women that we know. I pray you'll carry it forward from this place today. And if you're here today and you need it, that you'll reach out and receive it. Jesus came to redeem us. He came to save us. What does it mean when I say Jesus is our savior? What does that mean? Saved from what? What? Jesus is my savior. Savior from what? Tell your neighbor if you think you know. Saved from what? Saved from myself. Saved from my sin. Saved from my inclination to do my own thing. Saved me from the condemnation that will lead me to eternal separation. That's what Jesus came to save us from. From fear and judgment. Jesus came. Look what it says in John 12, 47. Not to judge the world, but to save it. He forgives all my sins and he heals me. If today you're here and you need healing, reach out and receive it. And finally, the light of Christ comes to transform our lives. The final point I want to talk about today has to do with an attitude that I have to admit is falling to me sometimes. Have you, even this month, thought this of one of your family members or friends? You thought this thought? They'll never change. They'll never change. I could bring them to a hundred things at church and they'll never change. We could talk about this stuff and they'll never change. Ever said that about somebody? Have you said that about the person seated next to you? They'll never change. I will admit to you that there are people that I've talked to for 20 some years here in the North Hills about the Lord and they've never changed. And it's tempting to say they'll never change. But I want you to... That is an anti-Christmas statement. Because anyone can change when the light of the gospel penetrates into their hearts. Anyone can change. No one has gone farther than the grace of God can reach. And I want to just say to us all today that the message of Christmas is that whatever condition of your heart or soul, whatever it might be, no matter how entrenched or unresponsive, and he wants to bring life. Look at the next scripture. It says, My purpose is