Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Everyone, you can grab a seat. Anyone excited about the fact that in just a few hours it's going to be Christmas? Good, good. Well, hey, this is the very first ever 2 p.m. uh get-together we've had on Christmas Eve, and we wondered if anyone would come. So thank you for uh for helping us learn that lesson. We are so excited to have you with us. If you're new, my name's Justin, and it's my absolute privilege to be able to lead this church, this amazing family that we call His Hands. We are thrilled to share Christmas Eve with you. We're so excited that you're here. Here in a few moments, I'm gonna share a little bit about what Christmas means, how what Jesus did 2,000 years ago can make all of our lives brighter, not just now, not just in this season, but but all the time. I have a few quick pieces of info for you first, though. Number one, everyone should have a white bracelet, right? Someone asked me why we're all under house arrest. I promise you there are no legal ramifications for wearing these. If you somehow made it through without one, uh don't hesitate to stand up and go grab one from the entrances. We'll help you with those. Hopefully you've got them. Do us a huge favor, though. We'll get to these in a little bit, but on your way out, make sure to drop those off where you got them. If you have kids, take them off their wrists, put them back where you got them. That way we have them for the next group of people that'll be here at four o'clock. Want to let everyone know that we are not meeting this upcoming Sunday. If you're new, we we're mostly a volunteer church. We have a really small staff compared to most churches our size. And so we take one Sunday off every year. We give all of our amazing volunteers one week off. That's nice, right? One out of 52. We're we're really, you know, looking out for them. Um we give them one Sunday off, but we'll be back on January 3rd, and we're gonna kick the year off, kick 2016 off with a series we're calling more. And I'd love to invite you to that. I don't know what it is you want more of in your life next year. I don't know what maybe you need more of, but I do know this. Whatever we need more of, God has. He has it. And he wants you to have whatever more you need. So I just want to invite you to be with us on the third. It's gonna be a great, great time. All right, final thing. I want to say uh a huge thank you to everyone who has served this year at his hands, everyone who has given of their time, given financially this year. I know a lot of us are new, and if you're new, we don't pass a plate or a bucket or anything like that to collect an offering. There are four columns at the back. If you want to help out, that's fine. But I know a lot of us here, his hands is our home. And this year, you have all worked so hard. You've served, you've given financially. I love these updates. Last year, at the very end of the year, I got to stand up here and share that because of your generosity, last year, 2014, we were able to give away over $80,000 to people in need, which was really exciting. That's awesome. You can clap for that. But uh, but this year, this year, because of all of you guys who have been so faithful throughout the year, we were able to give over $130,000 to people in need. So thank you so much. I just want to say thank you for that. Um, well, hey, would you pray with me? Can we pray? Jesus, thank you for this amazing group of people. Thank you for this opportunity to be together, this opportunity, Lord, to just uh to hear about you, to talk about you, to think about you. And Lord, we ask that uh as you, God, as you speak to our hearts tonight, that our lives would get brighter. And that we would know that you're the answer that we need. And we ask all this in your name. Amen. Well, like I said just a few minutes ago, in a few hours it will officially be Christmas. I know a lot of us are excited about that. And no matter where you stand when it comes to Christmas from like a spiritual perspective, I think we can all agree that there is no time of the year like Christmas. There's no time of the year that can compete with this season, at least from a commotion standpoint. All the things that we have to do at this time of the year. It's unending, it's a lot, right? The commotion is intense. There are parties. There are parties at work, there are parties at school, there are Christmas programs, there is shopping, there's mandatory time with relatives that we work really hard to avoid all year long. And it all goes out the door at Christmas. It's all gone. There is so much to do around Christmas time. The commotion is unending. Even the commotions surrounding decorating for Christmas alone, just decorating for Christmas. It's nuts. And I know that decorating for Christmas can be kind of divisive. Not all of us love to do that. In fact, I'm sure that we could all fit into one of two categories tonight when it comes to Christmas decorations. There are those of us who love to decorate for Christmas, and there are those of us who don't. And there are extremes in both categories. Over here, this might be like Ebenezer Scrooge. Decorating for Christmas is like pulling teeth. It's the last thing you'd like to do. When you walk into a store and you see Christmas trees and you hear Christmas music, you're angry. You're really upset, especially if it's still October. Like you have a really hard time with that, and that's okay. Because way over here, the people that balance you out, this would be someone like Clark Griswold from Christmas Vacation. You live to decorate for Christmas, and if if money were no object and you had a small power plant in your backyard, your house would be visible from space during the Christmas season. And I know some of you are like that because I am married, not to Clark Griswold literally, but to my wife, who embodies him. If you've seen that movie, my wife lives to decorate for Christmas. I have never known someone that gets as passionate about lights and trees and ornaments and wreaths. Oh my goodness, wreaths. Like my my amazing wife Megan. She lives for it. And it's it's hard for me because every single year we add one or two bins or maybe three or four bins to our Christmas decorating stockpile. It's something new every single year. Last year it was garland that goes around our front porch. This year it was it was the lights that go up and down your driveway that make your driveway look like a runway at the airport. You know what I'm talking about? Which I actually like those because I can come in hot at nighttime. I can just fly down and I hit that driveway every time. The mailbox is fine. I love those lights. They're good. Next year, I don't know. It's probably gonna be some inflatable snowman or something, but I know it's coming. I know it's coming. And so as the years go by, I know that it's inevitable that we will become that family. And you know what I mean by that family. Some of you are that family, don't be offended. I'm gonna be you in a few years. You're the family that goes so all out for Christmas decorating that the people in your neighborhood they don't like you in December. Because no matter what they do, it pales in comparison to you. So people drive by your house, and instead of getting excited, they just go, come on, tone it back a little bit. Like, come on. Leave something for the rest of us. I'm gonna be that in 10 years, and I'm not exactly thrilled about it. Because I'm not right here. I'm not Clerk Griswold, I'm not Scrooge. I'm like most of us, I think I'm in the middle. I love Christmas decorations when someone else puts them up. I just want to enjoy the fruits of someone else's hard work. I don't think that's too much to ask, but year in, year out, there's more, and I've got to put them up and then take them down and put them in bins and store them and figure all that out next year. It's a lot. But but Megan is worth it. And this is not me reassuring myself or you. She is absolutely worth it. I just know that it's gonna continue. It's gonna continue. The very first time I ever decorated for Christmas with Megan was was interesting. It was 12 years ago, we weren't married yet. We were dating really seriously, and her family invited me to their house to help them decorate for Christmas. Now, in my home, we had amazing Christmas decorations because one morning we would wake up and mom would have taken out the Christmas tree, put it up, decorated, and we just like yawn and go, wow, that's beautiful. That's not how Megan's family does it. They all get together, they go by a tree, they they decorate the tree together, they play music, there's hot chocolate. It's it's lovely, but if you grew up like me, it's kind of annoying, you know? Because you have to manufacture some joy that you may not be used to. And so I'm there and I'm like, this is amazing. How many hours are we doing this just out of does this take a while? It does okay. I just want to know what I need to muster. And and I think they wanted to include me, so they gave me a surprising amount of responsibility. I was in charge of the ornaments on the main tree. And see, I've been married to Megan for over 10 years, so I've learned some of the rules about ornaments on trees. You start with the big ornaments, you space those out, fill in with the small ones, make sure the colors don't cluster, make sure they get evenly distributed. I did not know any of that 12 years ago. So I was just like, all right, here's an ornament, put it on the tree. Here's another one, uh, over here. Why not? And when I was done, an hour and a half of this, it looked bad. I mean, it was one of those situations where her family was trying to, you know, to encourage me, they'd come up and say, no, no, no, no. It's it's different than we've done in the past. It's different, but no, it looks great. And when people begin compliments by saying, no, no, no, it's not a compliment. I knew that. And I'm stressing out because again, I don't exactly live to decorate for Christmas, and I'm thinking about taking all these down, having to do it all over again, having to spend another hour of my life doing this. But Megan saved me. She saved me. It was awesome. Because while I was in charge of the ornaments, Megan was in charge of the lights. And remember, she's she's Clark Griswold. She goes all out, she put so many strands of light on that tree that you could not look at it directly. You had to sort of like do this and see it out of the corner of your eye. It blinded you, and when you finally adjusted and you looked at it, you could not see a single ornament on the tree. Not one ornament, all you could see was light. And at first, that frustrated me. I was frustrated because I'd spent an hour, two hours on that. But that frustration soon melted away, and I was relieved because my horrible work, my mess, was covered up by the lights. I was I was rescued by the light. And if you wanted to come up with a tagline for Christmas, rescued by the light, that could fit. It really could. The book of John tells the story of Jesus coming into this world, and it tells the story a little bit differently than the others. Some of the other stories begin with the nativity scene, there's shepherds and angels and Mary and Joseph. John doesn't begin his story that way. I gotta walk all the way over here to grab my tablet. Here's what John says, John chapter 1. In the beginning, the word already existed. The word was with God, and the word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. He goes on to say that God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell us about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light, he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. The one who is the true light, Jesus. He came into the world and he came into this world to make it brighter. To make it brighter, to make it full of light, to rescue all of us from whatever we might call darkness, to rescue us with his light. We have all been rescued by the light with Jesus. Now I'm sure John would have loved to take credit for this beautiful metaphor describing Jesus by calling him light, but it actually wasn't John's idea. John got it from Jesus himself. In John chapter 8, verse 12, the Bible says this. Jesus spoke to the people once more, and he said, I'm the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life. That is a pretty bold thing to say about yourself. I'm the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness. You'll have the light that leads to life. That's bold, but Jesus was never afraid to be bold. And see, I love what he says because one of the things that makes Jesus so compelling and so irresistible to me is the fact that he can perfectly describe the human condition like no one else that's ever lived. Jesus has this way of speaking into the depths of what makes us tick, like no person that's ever lived before. If you want evidence, if you're searching for something to convince you that Jesus is more than just a man, look no further than his unparalleled understanding of you. He knows you. If you don't believe he walked on water or rose from the dead, just read what he said and look at his insight into the human condition. It doesn't make any sense. He was 30 years old. I used to be 30 years old. Not that long ago. I still can't figure out what my wife is trying to tell me most of the time. And at 30 years old, Jesus, this man who grew up in this nowhere town in the middle of nowhere, he worked a normal job, he had a normal family, he wasn't formally educated or anything like that. This 30-year-old man has an ability to speak into who you are and to show you things about yourself, things about life that no one else has ever seen before. It makes no sense unless, of course, John chapter 1 is correct, and he's the one who made us. Because, see, there's an intimacy and a detail in knowledge that the maker of something has that no one else has. And when I read Jesus, talk about life. When I read Jesus, talk about what it means to be a person, I see the author of life talking about life. And this statement that he just made, walking in darkness, if you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness. It is his understanding of you on full display. Because can we think of a better phrase to describe what life feels like most of the time? Something that can describe it better than walking in darkness. That may seem a little bit epic, it may seem a little over the top, but really think about it. We all do our best. This year it's almost done. All of us, I know we've given it our best shot. But so much of the time, it's a guessing game for us. It's shots in the dark. We don't really know what to do. We don't know what's around the corner. We don't know what's gonna happen. We make plans. In a few weeks, we're gonna make a bunch of plans, right? New Year's resolutions. Then we make backup plans, and the world tells us that if we're really wise, if we want to be the wisest people in the world, we should always have a backup plan for our backup plan. Maybe a contingency plan for the backup plan of the backup plan because you just never know. See, we're walking in darkness. We're doing our best to feel our way around, but we're not sure what's gonna happen. We may not call it darkness, maybe we call it uncertainty, but it's the same thing. Kids are scared of the dark because the dark is uncertain. You don't know what's there and what's not there. And when that's the case, kids are left at the mercy of their imagination. And if you have children or have at one time in your life been a child, you know that children can think up and imagine some really scary things. But so can I and so can you. How much of the stress and the worry and the fear and the anxiety that we deal with every single day comes simply from this the scary things we imagine might happen in the uncertainty of life. It's the things we think up in the dark. Jesus says that we're walking in darkness. It's not a condemnation. He's just describing the human condition. We're doing our best, but we can't see in the dark. I can't see in the dark, you can't see in the dark, but Jesus can. And when we have Jesus, not when we just believe in him or acknowledge him, but when we have him in our lives, something amazing happens. The light comes on for the very first time. And see, when the lights come on, when the lights come on, everything changes. When you turn the lights on, you can see for the very first time. What was uncertain becomes certain. What was hazy becomes clear. And when you have Jesus in your life, it's like the lights are on for the very first time, and you can see yourself and you can see your circumstances and you can see the world in the right light. Jesus is the light that leads to life. And if we want to experience the kind of joy and the kind of passion and the kind of love that God has for us, we need to see our lives in the right light. We need to see it in the light of Jesus. A man once said this about Jesus. This is really beautiful. When Jesus comes into life, the time of guessing and of groping is ended. The time of doubt and uncertainty and vacillation is gone. The path that was dark becomes light. The decision that was wrapped in a night of uncertainty is illuminated. Without Jesus, we are like people on an unknown road in the pitch dark. With Jesus, the way is clear. See, with Jesus, life gets brighter and brighter. Jesus, he is that light that leads to life. And as we celebrate Christmas a little bit more tonight, I just I have a question for you. I have to ask, could you use a little bit more light in your life? If you're kind of tired of walking in the darkness, if that accurately describes what your world feels like, you are just overwhelmed by all the uncertainties and all the things that might happen and could happen, you need Jesus. Because with Jesus, things change. It's not that we don't go through tough situations, it's not that we still don't have to endure challenging circumstances. That's always the case. But with Jesus, we can see those challenging circumstances in a whole new light. All the sudden things that we used to call a crisis are an annoyance. Problems become opportunities. Even things like the fear of death change. Because, see, without Jesus, death feels permanent, but with Jesus, death is just a circumstance. With Jesus, everything is brighter, and Jesus, He wants you to have His light in your life. He doesn't want you feeling your way around in the dark. That's not why God created you. He wants more for you than that. He wants you to have His light so that everywhere you go, every situation you face, everything you endure, you have the light of the world with you. That is what Jesus wants for you. And you can have him. You can have him, you can have him tonight. All you have to do is ask. If you want Jesus in your life, do me a favor, turn the light on on your bracelet. I'm just kidding, that's already been done. But but seriously, if if you want life to get brighter, he is the answer. When he came to this world 2,000 years ago, when he breathed his first breath, life got brighter. Because finally, for the very first time ever, the one who had the answers was with us. The one who could actually guide us was with us. He wants to be your guide for life, he wants to light the way. With Jesus, we still go through dark tunnels, but with him, there is always a light at the end. He wants to be that light for you. And so I just want to say this Christmas: if you don't know him, he just wants to make your life brighter. All you got to do is ask. All you gotta do is pray. You don't have to go through a ritual or a ceremony. We're not gonna make you stand up. You can just, in your heart right now, say, Jesus, I need you to light the way. I'm tired of walking in darkness. I'm tired of trying to feel my way around and figure it out myself. I need your help. Light my path, make the way clear. And he will do that. He promises to do that because Jesus is the light that leads to life. And with him, we are all rescued by the light. Would you pray with me? Jesus, thank you so much. Thank you for your love. Thank you, Lord, for all that you do for us, for all that you are for us. We love you. We love you and we need you. And God, if there is one person in this room tonight that has not experienced what it's like for the light to come on, for our spirit to wake up, I pray that that happens right now. Whether that person is four years old or 40, it doesn't matter. Lord Jesus, we need a light in the dark, and you are that. So be that light for us. Remind all of us that we have you. And we don't have to walk in darkness. When we have you, when we have the light of the world, we love you. We love you. Merry Christmas, Jesus. Amen.