Actually Lucy, my trouble is Christmas. I just don't understand it. Instead of feeling happy, I feel sort of let down. You need involvement. You need to get involved in some real Christmas project. Yo, yo, good morning everybody. Hey, it's Christmas time. Yeah, yeah. You know, I say that in a few of the other services and they say, yeah, whatever. You must be an anointed crowd.

Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6 through 7. We'll get there in a moment. We're talking about the greatest story in the universe. But if you know anything about how this greatest story started, how it began, you'll have to go back to Genesis 1. And I want to read to you, we'll get to Isaiah 9, but I want to read to you what the text says in Genesis 1, verse 14. Then God said, "'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, and let them be assigned for signs and seasons and for days and years.'" "And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on earth." And it was so. And then God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. And then I love the way it finishes. He made the stars also. He made the stars also. There are 200 billion trillion stars in the observable universe. 200 billion trillion. Now how much of the universe is observable? Only 5%. You think about that, the vastness of the universe.

In fact, the more we learn about the universe, the more we learn that the earth is indeed the center, not geographically speaking, but as far as intentionality goes. So that everything outside the earth exists in order that life may be possible right here in this place right now. It's like somebody monkeyed with physics and everything related to it so that the stars could look down on planet earth and know that everything that exists above us is for us so that life may exist.

I was wondering this past week, what if the stars could talk? What would they say? What have they seen? The created order, the creation of everything. They've seen the Red Sea open up, the children of Israel walk across on dry land. They've seen the walls of Jericho fall. They've seen Moses before the burning bush, holy ground. They've seen Gideon chasing 15,000 warriors with 300 farmers. I love that story. But more importantly, they witnessed the greatest story in the universe.

And one of their own played a part, right? The Bethlehem Star. Now, just let me meander a little bit. It's Christmas, and I like to do this in the Christmas season. How do you audition for that job of the Bethlehem Star? I mean, is it like Rudolph's nose? You have to be exceptionally bright? Or is it a question of mobility? In other words, you have to be a fast-moving star? Because some believe the Bethlehem Star was actually the comet of 4 B.C., And to the older stars, said to the younger stars, you see that star over there? That's the Bethlehem star. Behave yourself and maybe God will use you for some grandiose purpose. Well, one thing is certain. They saw Isaiah 9 verse 6 and 7. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. And he will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. So the greatest story in the universe, and what you and I are going to do this Christmas, is we're going to go where no man has gone before. We're going to take a look at this from a cosmic perspective.

In order to do that, the first thing we have to do is ask this question, okay? Do you know anybody that doesn't like Christmas? Anybody? Oh, yeah. There are people who get grumpy. Sometimes I wonder, and I want to ask them, why don't you just go to the mall and kick Santa and punch an elf? I mean, think about it. What do we usually associate the words bah humbug with? Yeah, Charles Dickens' immortal fictitional character or anti-hero, Ebenezer Scrooge, right? And Scrooge was the prototype of the Grinch who stole Christmas. The paradigm of cynicism.

He was mean, he was insensitive, selfish, unkind, stingy. By the way, I love Jim Carrey's version of that in 2009, the remake of the Christmas Carol. I thought it was excellent. But what you and I don't know, what we often miss, is that his character is preeminently profane. Do you know bah humbug is the Victorian use of profanity? So you thought you were taking your children to a rated G movie and the whole time there's profanity throughout it. Scrooge profanely demeaned what was holy. He trampled on the sanctity of Christmas, despised the sacred, was cynical toward the sublime. And that's unfortunate because Christmas is called a holiday because it is a holy day. That's what holiday means, holy day, where businesses close, families get together, spend time together, churches are filled. There are often 24-hour truces among soldiers as they put down their weapons.

It's a day that differs from every other day. And every year I come out about this time and try to get you fired up about Christmas. Every year. Some of you, you're all into it. A lot of you think, oh boy. And whether you know it or not, you're a little bit like Scrooge. You don't say bah humbug, no profanity, at least that I hear. But every generation has its abundance of Scrooges. Church is full of them.

Even I as a pastor, and the reason I've written this sermon probably 10 times and never delivered it, because I thought that's really not the appropriate way to begin Christmas. Oh, but this year, it's the appropriate way. I hear endless complaints about commercialism. People tell me the tradition of Santa Claus is sacrilege.

I hear pseudo historians murmur that Christmas isn't biblical. I've had Scrooges corner me on the patio and at the coffee shops and say to me, and I quote, "Pastor Jeff, don't you know the church invented Christmas to compete with the ancient Roman festival honoring the bull god Mithras. Christmas, they say, is a capitulation to paganism." Now, these Scrooges know just enough about history to be dangerous and rain on my Christmas parade.

I know that Christmas time is a time of commerce. I know that department stores are decorated to the hilt, ad pages of the newspaper swell in size, and we tick the number of days, shopping days left of Christmas. I got it. But remember, the high degree of commerce of Christmas is driven by one thing. You say, yeah, making money. Well, not only that, but by buying gifts for each other. And buying gifts for each other is not an ugly, ignoble vice. It incarnates the very spirit of Christmas, right? Right?

Right? When I go shopping for my golfing buddies, and I do every year, I'm thinking the whole time about the smile on their faces when I give them the present. It's the one time a year I'm not self-absorbed, that I actually care what somebody else thinks, and I care about their joy. I'm less focused on myself and more focused on somebody else. There's nothing more godly than that.

For God so loved the world, the Bible says, that he gave his only begotten son. And the giving of these kind of gifts, I believe it's a marvelous response to the receiving of such gifts. You say, yeah, but the commercialism takes advantage of it. Well, you don't have to buy everything. But buying a gift on behalf of someone else is not an ungodly thing. For one day a year at least, we taste the sweetness of the inherent truth that it is more blessed to give than receive.

I remember when I got my ... Stay with me here. We're setting up a series, so just be patient. When I got my first job, it was the first Christmas I was able to buy gifts for everyone who had bought gifts for me from the time I was a little boy. My aunt, my uncle, my parents, my brothers. I probably spent too much that first Christmas, but it was the first chance I got to give to others who had given to me. I got to tell you, I got a lot more joy that Christmas in seeing the looks on their faces than any gift I received.

Can I tell you something? I think that God experiences a similar type joy, Tom's infinity, when his people receive the gift that he's given to them. The Scrooges tell us that we should not participate in Christmas until they put Christ back into Christmas. Well, let me tell you something. Christ has never left Christmas, my goodness. Never does the church get so much free air, Tom, than this time of year. Not only any music of Spotify, Pandora, 103.5 plays it nonstop, right?

But then you have the visual arts that are present in abundance, bearing testimony to the historical significance of the birth of Jesus. And then you have Christmas displays all around the world, both secular and religion or religious. And I don't, okay, you say, well, they don't know what they mean. So they're still there. There's a lot of people who sing Christmas songs, carols that have no idea the deep meaning, but they're still singing them. The first nativity scene can be traced all the way back to Francis of Assisi, 1223. Okay.

It's been a mainstay in Christian secular and secular communities ever since. In fact, despite all the hub-a-loo, 43 of our nation's capitals this year will display the nativity scene. Is one of them California? Yes.

Oh yeah, gotcha. That's right up in Sacramento. They got a brand new one in 2016. They'll display it as well. They may talk a good game over here, but when it comes to Christmas, we love the nativity scene. People will complain about it. I have Christians complain. Pastor Jeff, you got to talk more about our public places not putting up a nativity scene. And I always like to ask them, do you have one in your front yard? Because of everybody who called themselves a Christ follower and put one in their front yard and you wouldn't worry about who put up a nativity scene and who didn't.

Other people say to me, Pastor Jeff, we should not have Santa Claus at church. Santa Claus paganizes or at least trivializes Christmas. He's a myth and his very mythology cast a shadow over the sober historical reality of Jesus. In the words of Joe Biden, come on, man.

Listen, myths are not necessarily bad or harmful. Every society creates them. They are a peculiar art form invented usually to convey a message that culture deems important. Now, obviously, when a myth is passed off as real history, that's fraud. But when it serves a different purpose, it can be healthy and virtuous. Kris Kringle is a mythical hero, but he's not a villain. He's pure fiction, but a fiction used to illustrate a glorious truth.

When God appears in history, the time is holy. There's nothing fiction or unholy about the birth of Christ, the day Jesus was born. There's never been a more holy place than Bethlehem where the word became flesh. Never been a more holy time than Christmas morning when Emmanuel, God with us, was born. Christmas is a holiday. It is the holiest of holy days. So my introduction to this series is don't be scrooged at Christmas. Now, part of the message that I have written but never delivered I think it's important that you know how important Christmas is. The truth of the matter is the anti-Christmas movement began somewhere around the 18th century, 1500 years after Jesus, after Christians began celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25th. The anti-Catholic German Protestant Paul Ernst Jablonski attempted to prove that somehow December 25th was pagan and therefore Christmas was pagan as well.

Now, we now know his facts were false and his conclusions were in error, but it tickled the ears of the Protestants and the Puritans, the majority of whom hated the Catholic church. So out of hatred for the Catholic church, not from scripture, the modern anti-Christmas movement was born and the ebb and flow of it continues on till today. Now, what's interesting about this is that those who vehemently object To Christmas includes Jehovah Witnesses, Muslims, conspiracy theorists, atheists, some Hebrew roots groups, and secular humanists. And what's interesting about these groups is they all have something in common, which is what? They all agree on one thing, that Jesus, Yeshua, is not Emmanuel, is not God in the flesh with us. He may be a good moral teacher, but he's not Messiah. He's not Savior. He's not God come in the flesh. He didn't come to save the sins or the world from their sins.

In fact, Jehovah Witness primary publication called The Watchtower says, "Those who celebrate Christmas do not honor God or Christ, but honor pagan celebrations of pagan gods." Well, in reality, I think the opposite is true. Since Jesus' divine conception is first illuminated at Christmas, to neglect the celebration and remembrance of the Christmas story, the greatest story in the universe, the truth of Messiah's divinity is a direct attack on the Messiah.

And I believe at the heart is driven by the spirit of the antichrist. In other words, the idea that we should not celebrate the birth of Jesus is not from Christ, but the antichrist. Now let me give you quickly, the end of the sermon is the best part. All right, so we're going to go right down deep into our hearts. But I got to, folks, this is the only time I get to do any teaching is when I see you on the weekend. So I'm not just going to tell you a bunch of funny jokes and stories. You're going to have to learn something.

So, here are the objections, because I think they're going to become more and more popular. Here are the objections to people outside and some inside the church for why we should not celebrate Christmas. Objection one, they tell us Christmas is pagan. But the name Christmas is a contraction made up of two words, Christ, the Greek Christos or anointed one, And the word mass from the Anglo-Saxon word mese, which comes from the Latin misa, a form of the word metere, which means to send. Christmas means Christ, the anointed of God, is sent. And those two ideas of anointing and sending are deeply rooted in Judaism and I think makes Christmas just as much a Jewish holiday as Hanukkah.

Is Christmas pagan? Most definitely not in name. Second objection, the date of Christmas is a day on which pagan deities were worshiped. Therefore, Christians shouldn't celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December. Okay, two things. First, the pagan deities mentioned by those critical of Christmas include one, the god Tammuz, which we talked about during our deception series. Tammuz is the Mesopotamian god of fertility who did evolve into all kinds of sexual immorality and temple worship.

But Tammuz was not worshipped on December 25th, but at the end of the summer long heat and long days, long before the winter solstice. The second god, Samartinella, the pagan celebration that honors Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and of harvest, Saturnalia, was celebrated the 17th to the 23rd of December and not 25th of December.

Third, Natalis Sol Invictus. Natalis means birthday. Sol means son. Sol Invictus means the name of the sun god worshipped by the Romans. So there are many sun cult gods. I mean, my goodness, the amount of cults in the Greco-Roman world who worshipped the sun gods was innumerable, so they decided to combine them all together and celebrate the worship of the sun god, yes, on December 25th, in order to bring all the cults together. However ...

People who mention this fail to mention that Microbius Theodosius, perhaps the most respected administrator, magister, officiorum of antiquity, records that this date of December 25th did not begin, was not inaugurated until the 4th century celebration.

Okay, Pastor Jeff, what does that mean? Well, history tells us that Christians celebrated December 25th as the birth of Christ as early as 170 AD, which means the Christian celebration of Jesus' birth on December 25th predates the pagan date over a few hundred years, which means the pagans adopted the Christian date, not the other way around.

So the logic of this objection is that any day used in the past to worship a false God should not be used by Christians to worship the true God. Now you think about that. You can't find a date on the Gregorian calendar, any other calendar, where a pagan God is not celebrated or worshiped in the past. Where does that leave us? Objection three, Jesus said, remember my death until I come. This is what we celebrate in communion. Therefore they say we should not celebrate Christmas.

The logic here is that anything not explicitly commanded in scripture should not be observed. And of course, this is a self-defeating premise because Messiah's death can't be remembered without his birth into time and space.

And the other thing is I find nowhere in scripture where we're commanded to celebrate the resurrection. And yet the early church was so focused on celebrating it that they moved worship from Saturday to Sunday, the first day of the week, because that's the day on which Jesus rose from the dead. So they celebrated it every weekend. Objection four, shepherds in Israel don't tend their sheep in the winter.

Therefore, shepherds of the Christmas story can't have been tending their flocks in winter, so the December date for the Messiah's birth is incorrect. Okay, first of all, nowhere in the Bible does it claim that Jesus was born on December 25th. It could have been, we just don't know. And if pagan gods were worshiped on the same day, it's because they stole the date from the Christians, not vice versa. And even if, even if the Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on a similar day, who cares?

Christians were always redeeming pagan celebrations. Isn't that the point? Don't we do the same with Halloween? Halloween was first celebrated by the Celts. It was the festival of Sahin, and it doesn't spell like that, but that's how you pronounce it. And it's a festival that marked the end of the harvest season.

So, the Celts believed that the boundary between the two worlds, between the living and the dead, became blurred at the end of October. And they believed the spirits of the dead would rise and come to the earth and cause trouble and play tricks on people. Trick or treat. So, they would dance around bonfires to keep the evil spirits away. They would burn crops and sacrifice animals to the pagan deities or to the gods of the Celtic deities in order to ward off the evil spirits.

Now, our church celebrates, we've attempted in the past to hijack Halloween from the secular market and redeem it from its roots and bring it into the light. How do we do that? In the past, we've had trunk parties out in the parking lot. And the idea is we're going to open our trunks and have candy where kids can come and it's a safe environment. And you know what we're going to do? We're going to start conversations with people about the gospel.

And then we moved to glow parties where we encouraged our members to go in their front yards and light the front yard up, light in the midst of darkness, give free candy away to all the kids, and engage your neighbors in conversations about the good news of the gospel. That's what the church does. It redeems what the secular world means for evil, God uses for good. Now I will admit, the first year I took this job in 2008, I walked on campus my first Halloween and I saw some of the staff dressed up as witches, warlocks, and ghosts.

I remember thinking, "Jeff, you're not in Tennessee anymore." If you're doing that, I have a little piece of advice for you. Stop it. Don't give any air time to the demonic. They get enough. But saying that the shepherds do not tend their sheep in the winter and therefore Jesus was not born December 25th is ridiculous. Israel's sheep are shepherded throughout the year. Moreover, if you look at the Christmas story, the shepherds of the Christmas story were no ordinary shepherds.

The shepherds that were announced or the angels announced to the shepherds who were in close proximity to Bethlehem where the sheep and those pastures were raised for temple sacrifices. So they had to be closely guarded year round. Why? Because they had to be unblemished, unharmed by the predators and kept free from any kind of inferiority.

Perhaps that's the reason why the angels decided to announce to these shepherds that behold, all of these lambs that you're sacrificing in the temple, that doesn't need to happen anymore because the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world is being born right over here in Bethlehem. Now, objection five, the last one, till we get to the good stuff. This one really impacts me as much as Ellen DeGeneres and Sharon Stone and George Clooney moving out of America. It's just hard to take.

I just don't know if I'm going to get over it, folks. Oh, here's a ticket. So come on, no matter what side of the aisle you're on, have a little laugh, have a little joke. I joke about everybody. So here's the thing. I've heard that Christmas trees are pagan. Are they really?

The people who support this kind of thing, quote Jeremiah 10, verse 3 through 5, for the practices of the peoples are worthless. They cut a tree out of the forest and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold. They fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them. They can do no harm, nor can they do any good.

Now, folks, this is not speaking about anything remotely related to the Christmas tree. Again, in the words of President Biden, come on, man. This passage was written 600 years before Jesus was born and probably at least 1,500 years before the first Christmas tree.

This passage is speaking about carving idols out of wood and taking them home and trusting in them and worshiping them and serving them. I don't know of any Christian who takes a Christmas tree, puts it in their house and kneels down to begin to worship it. We gather around the tree, we place presents under it to remind ourselves of the beauty and the wonder of the greatest story in the universe. By the way, who came first, the pagan or the tree? The tree, of course.

God commands us not to worship objects of creation. He does not tell us to avoid using them as reminders of Himself.

In fact, God commanded his people to manufacture the cherubim and place it on the top of the Ark of the Covenant as a symbol of his protection. They didn't worship the cherubim. It was a visual understanding to his worshipers, a reminder. Are trees good or evil? Well, neither. They're amoral, not immoral. I mean, we used to have a wooden tree, a cross in the auditorium. Now we've graduated to the more modern aluminum tree.

However you look at it, I will go over sometimes and I'll kneel down before the tree, but I'm not worshiping the tree. It reminds me of what Christ has done for me. We've nailed our sins to the tree. We don't really think the tree forgives us. We know that Christ forgives us. Sometimes there are symbols that help us. They give us visuals. It doesn't mean that we're worshiping. Besides that, think of all the things the pagan world utilizes in a sinful way. Does that mean we can't use anything the pagan world uses?

Then I guess we should discontinue using oxygen, which for some wouldn't be a bad idea. Joke, joke. Just because people worship football on Sunday doesn't mean I'm going to stop worshiping Jesus on Sunday. Okay, but let's talk about the Christmas tree just for a moment. I love the Christmas tree. Every time the one goes up on the patio, man, I just love it. I love our tree.

I always have. Monday night, Michael, Pastor Michael's going to lead us. That's Monday night. Tomorrow night, he'll lead us around the tree. We're going to pray and we're going to worship together. We're not worshiping the tree. I got special memories when it comes to Christmas trees. My mother and I used to decorate the tree together. Back in the good old days, again, when they had the big Christmas lights that would burn your house down.

I mean, you touch them, man, it'll take the skin right off your finger. But you didn't care. You didn't care. And you didn't care that they were so bright. They were big bulbs, man, that just lit up the house. Today, when I smell a Christmas tree, I think of my mom. I think of our times together. Our family dog, King, he was a full collie. He loved when we brought the Christmas tree home. And I could swear I would see him smile when we brought the tree into the door because he knew now he no longer had to go outside to do his business.

And I got these visions of my mom smacking him on the backside with her broom, yelling, I told you not in the house, not in the house. My father always chose me to go get the tree. Actually, that's not true. He offered all of us, but I was the only one that wanted to venture out with dad, a very special time. And it seemed to always be snowing when we got the tree. And the lights in the yard would cause this beautiful glistening.

Then the angel at the top of the tree always reminded me, even as a little boy, that God was always watching over me. I didn't worship the angel, and I didn't worship the tree. It reminded me of something bigger than the angel, bigger than the tree. But do you know the real origins of the Christmas tree are rooted in present-day Germany around 1419.

Paradise plays were performed to celebrate the feast day of Adam and Eve, which fell on Christmas Eve. The tree then represented the tree of knowledge and the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. And the reason the pagan cults borrowed the idea is because they liked the idea that trees symbolized a new season of life in the middle of the deepest, darkest winters.

But again, who came first, the Garden of Eden or the pagan festivals? Well, the Garden of Eden. And just because the Greeks and the Romans hijacked that life is portrayed in creation by the tree, doesn't mean we Christians can't continue to celebrate our origins and their meanings. So that the first Christmas trees were decorated with roses, apples, wafers, and sweets. Do you know why? Neither do I. I don't know.

That's all we know. No one knows for sure. But the origins of the Christmas tree in America go back to some of the first German immigrants to America who brought the Christmas tree traditions with them. Now, let me tell you what the tree has symbolized to Christians for a long, long time. The next time you look at your Christmas tree, evergreens represented Christ's birth and resurrection, new life. And the branches represented the crown of his thorns. Did you know that?

In fact, Christians have used evergreens to celebrate the winter solstice and winter festivals for a couple thousand years. But the celebration had nothing to do with any pagan celebration and had everything to do with reminding themselves of God's beautiful garden of life, even in the midst of the darkness of winter.

That's the reason lights were added later to the Christmas tree. The light reminded them that Jesus, the light has come into the world in the midst of darkness and the darkness will never defeat it. Based on Isaiah 9 too, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land, the deep darkness, a light has dawned and John 1, 4, in him was life and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

And so after the lights were in addition to the Christmas tree, then candy canes became an addition to the Christmas tree. Did you know that? Do you know what candy canes represent? The white color represents the purity of Christ. The red color represents the blood of Jesus shed for our sins. The stripes represent the suffering of Jesus, including the crown of thorns, the wounds in his hands and feet and the cross by his stripes. We are healed. The crook shape at the candy cane.

It's said to represent the staff used by shepherds to care for the sheep, and Jesus is ultimately the good shepherd. And then the J shape of the candy canes is said to represent the name of Jesus who came to earth as the Savior of the world.

Now, I was thinking about all this this past week, and I remember that David, one of my favorite Old Testament characters, was not commanded by God to dance half naked before the Ark of the Covenant as he brought it into Jerusalem with music and rejoicing. In fact, his wife, Michal, criticized him for his shameless celebration, and the Bible tells us that she would remain barren until her time of death.

Now, if David danced semi-naked in celebration before the written word of God as it entered Jerusalem, then how much more should you and I celebrate with great joy concerning the entry into our world of the living word, Yeshua, our Messiah, born of a virgin to save us from our sins? Now, yeah, we don't know the exact date. It could be. It could not be.

But we celebrate Christmas with great joy, with a great holiday spirit, so that we don't become like those who want to rob us of one of the most enjoyable times of the year, seeking to imprison us in the bondage of the past. Now, let's finish it. Let's finish it on a high note. Once again this year, all of us will delight. I'm hoping ... I always try to get you motivated. I always worry about you Californians. I guess I should say I always worry about we Californians. You know, I'm a Californian now too.

I always worry about you. It's a little different out here on the West celebrating Christmas, you know. It's a little bit slower to get you in the mood for some reason. I don't know if you're tired from all the partying or what. So let the world ignore the true meaning of Christmas. So in celebration of creativity, I wrote a little something here.

Here's my take. Let them shop till they drop. We will sing without the bling. We will pray no matter what they say. We will celebrate. We will not hesitate. We will communicate without the exact date. We will accelerate, elevate the message of Jesus' love, not hate, to the reprobate. We will emulate, never delegate the greatest story of the universe.

So you and I will continue to celebrate Christmas. We will give and receive gifts without failing to acknowledge the true gift giver. And we will hoist and light up the Christmas tree, remembering that no matter how deep the darkness in our lives, the light still shines. But this is what I want to leave you with. Now take a deep breath. See, we're way on time. Take a deep breath because if you haven't leaned in and say, Pastor Jeff, I really would rather not get a history lesson when I come to church. Okay, suck it up and take it anyway. Amen.

But I got eight and a half minutes to preach to you. Okay, so let me do it. The Christmas story will never go away. And the reason is, it is the story from which all other great stories come. Now follow me. I noticed Hollywood is making another attempt at Sleeping Beauty. Have you noticed? I found out when I took my children to see, grandchildren to see Moana 2. That's what a good grandfather does. Even though I'm not a big Disney fan, I read my homework, did my homework, Moana 2's fine.

But as I watched it, I thought, here we go again. No matter what Disney tries to do, it keeps betraying itself because it attempts to communicate on the outside that no ultimate right or wrong, good or evil exists. That morality is subjective, that gender is fluid, that truth is relative. But it struggles because on the inside, it keeps creating movies that say something different.

It's movies continue to communicate the opposite, that good and evil are real and they are objective and good must overcome evil. That is the plot of every movie. Think for a moment of all the great stories, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Thor, Lord of the Rings, Aquaman, Star Wars, Moana. What do all of these things have in common? What do they all have in common? They're not real. They didn't really happen. They're legends.

Yet, Hollywood keeps turning them out again and again at the dismay of the philosophers and pure rationalists. Hollywood keeps recycling these stories again and again and again. Now people are saying, "Disney, why do you lie to our children? Why do you make them think the world is like this?" Now they've brought back all the superheroes who always win, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Eternals, the Avengers, Captain America.

So we, you and I, keep paying hard-earned money to see the same plot again and again. You have a good guy, you got a bad guy, you got the hero that saves the day, attention, an antagonist, a savior. Turned out again and again. Let me go back and read the quote that I've read numerous times because I don't think I've found a better quote to illustrate what I'm trying to communicate. And it's Anthony Lane who writes for The New Yorker.

He read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and this is what he said. He said, it is a book that bristles with bravado, yet to give into it, to cave into it, as most of us did on the first reading, betrays a reluctance to face the finer shades of life that verges on the cowardly. Do you know what he's saying to you? He's saying if you're drawn to these type movies, it's because you're a coward. You're a coward. You're a coward.

Because these stories didn't really happen. They're not factually true. So if you're drawn to them, it's because you can't face the reality that life stinks and it's not ever going to get any better. And we're all losers at the end. I wouldn't want to be around this guy for a pep talk. However, when men like Anthony Lane are asked about the origin of human longing, stay with me. I'll think through this. The origin. Why is it that you and I have this set of longings deep down in the human heart? All people.

that realistic fiction can never satisfy. Why? Who put these longings in us?

Why is there a deep human desire to escape death, to conquer all evil, to end all winters, to experience a love that never parts, to attain invincibility, to communicate with animals and angels, to triumph over all evil, to fly, to see the trees come alive? Why this desire? Why is it? Critics have no answer. Think about it. What if all the fantasies we love so much did not end well?

I take my grandchildren to Moana and let's say at the end, all the good people die. I guarantee there will not be a Moana three because they're all dead. But also my kids aren't going to go. What is the draw? You go see Thor. Instead of Thor conquering, someone comes down and drops the hammer on Thor's head and Asgard is lost. What do you do when you walk out of the movie theater? Sleeping Beauty. No prince to wake her up from her eternal sleep.

The prince doesn't find Cinderella's slipper, so she's resigned to a life of hard labor, envy, jealousy. Hey, nobody wants to go to a movie like that. Superman is destroyed by kryptonite, and the planet perishes under the rule of an evil sorcerer. I guarantee if that's how you ended the movie, people would stand up, boo! You ever been in a movie where people watch the movie, and they just sit there because they're so amazed for a while? Well, I guarantee if the movie's ended like this, boo! I want my money back.

The point is where fantasies are concerned, fantasies, even though we know the story did not actually happen, there's something deep inside all of us that knows the principles on which the story is based are true. There really is such a thing as good and evil. There really is a battle going on. Truth and justice are real. There really is a sorcerer of sorts wrecking havoc in humanity that we really are not meant to die for.

that we really do want and need to defeat death. So when we see and we hear and we read stories like this, there's something stirred within us. And we actually want to believe these things are true. Not that the stories are true. We know the stories aren't true, but the underlying realities to which the stories point, we know that story is true. Whether we admit it or not, the Christmas story is the greatest story in the universe because it's the basis of all good stories.

It's the story from which all good stories get their plot. I mean, my goodness, think about my favorite superhero, Superman. I love Superman stories. My grandkids call my wife Robin, Yaya. That's the word for grandmother for them, Yaya. And they came to me one day and said, what do you want us to call you? And I said, just call me Superman. I like Superman. Just call me Superman. They ended up calling me Papa, but I wanted Superman. Think about Superman. He comes from another world.

He has miraculous powers. He desires to save the planet. His enemy uses his own strength, his love for humanity against him, appears to kill him, but then he comes back and saves mankind. Does that story sound familiar? Fantasy merely points to the underlying truth we know is real. There is ultimate good and evil. A noble prince has indeed come. There is a love that never departs. A savior has come, and you and I will defeat death. Come on, man.

Artists receive their gifts from the great artist. Painters receive their gifts from the ultimate painter. Storytellers get their gift from the ultimate storyteller. Where do you think this story of good and evil comes from that's repeated again and again and again? Why is it that you and I pull for the underdog to win? Unless it's the Raiders. Everybody else though, why do we pull for the underdog to win?

Isn't it true? Isn't it true that we yearn? We yearn for something, but why do we pull? Why is it that we love the humble and the pure? Why do we love them? It's not because of atheistic evolution. That would never produce in you a love for humility. We hunger, I say, because food exists. We thirst because water exists. We crave rest because sleep exists. We desire love because love exists. You long for an eternal home because a new world does indeed exist.

That's why in Luke chapter two, when the announcement was made, the angel said, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is Messiah, the Lord. Now listen, this is the end. I told you we're right on time. Listen, all of you, I don't know who you are. All of you are. I can't, the names and faces have changed so much over the last two or three years.

I know there are a lot of people who come to a place like this and you enjoy it. You come on Sunday and you're welcome to ... I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're on your journey, but you need to understand something. This is not a game at all. This is the most serious thing you can do in your life is to connect with God because according to the ultimate story, this God created everything to have relationship with you and me. That was the purpose of the created order.

It's vast, it's beautiful, but make no mistake, the purpose of it, God demonstrates his handiwork in an effort so that you and I would know there is a creator God that we should pursue. God in his foreknowledge saw that in order for us to have that loving relationship with him, he's going to have to give you the freedom to reject him. Love is only really love when you have the freedom to receive it or reject it.

So for God to make you robotic and force you to love him is not love. For love to maintain its integrity, he's got to give you the freedom to receive it, pursue him, or to reject him.

Therefore, when you use your freedom to receive him, pursue him, that's the kind of loving relationship God wants. Even in the midst of your life when you don't understand, just because there are things you don't understand does not change the reality of the things you do understand. There has to be a creator. There has to be a designer. And that designer has put his image into you, which is why you long for something better. You ever think about why are you so discontent? If you were just made for earth, why not just be happy?

But you know deep in your soul there's something more. But you have to understand that when sin entered the world by those who would use their freedom to reject God, when sin entered the world, God from the get-go in his foreknowledge had a plan of redemption. That he was going to take on flesh. That's what Christmas is about. God, Emmanuel with us, he was going to live a perfect sinless life. He was going to go to the cross and die for your sins and mine. Had he been a sinner, he'd have to die for his own sins.

But because he's our representation, his righteousness now has been imputed to you and me. When God sees those who call on the name of Jesus, who kneel at the cross, not to worship the cross, but to worship the Savior, your sins are forgiven. He becomes the Lord of your life. You are baptized. You die to your old way, resurrected to the new. And at that point, listen, at that point, your eternal security is signed, sealed, and delivered.

If there's never been a point in your life, listen, you can come to church all your life and you can go through the motions and you can check out. And I'm talking specifically to you men right now. You may have not noticed, but I am a man.

And I know what it's like to be a man. It's tough to find our role and our place in this world. We're living in a time where people are saying that we're the problem with society. Listen, you're not the problem. God loves you. He wants relationship with you, but you've got to stop checking out.

You have to lean in and you've got to say, you know what? I'm going to bow my neck, lift my head up high, and I'm going to follow Christ. I know I'm not perfect, but I'm going to follow him. And I'm going to be the man that God called me to be in my family and in my community. And I'm going to stand up and be counted. And I'm going to get rid of this pornography. And I'm going to get rid of this alcohol. And I'm going to get rid of all these things that are coping mechanisms because down deep inside, I know I'm going to die. And when I die, I want to go with Jesus. Amen.

That's what Christmas is about right there. And so I went to the hospital to see one of our security guys, big tough Dave Tellez, walks around with me on the weekend. Now just let me say, let me say something to you while I'm on this. I have security not to keep you away from me.

Okay, if you ever want to talk to me, wherever you see me, please don't think you can't. Look, I'm Jeff. I love people. You want to talk to me, you come talk to me. Yeah, but sometimes you hide. Well, it's because sometimes I'm getting a little older and I'm a little tired between services, so I go and sit down for a minute before I do it again and again and again. But security's just here just to make sure everything's okay, because you may not have noticed this, but in California, there's some weird people.

I don't like it, but I'm convinced by our eldership that I should do it and I need it. But it's not to keep you away. That's not the purpose. I told you before, any pastor that doesn't have time for his people, I mean, even Jesus had time for people and he had a pretty important job to do. I went to see Dave. Dave's walking around with me. Dave has cancer and he may be watching this and I hope that he is. I went down to the hospital on Wednesday and I sat in the chair. Dave is so weak, a shell of his former self. He knows that. The chemo has just about killed him.

And he's starting on the up. There's an upward trend. But I sat in the chair beside the window, like a fifth or sixth story at Kaiser Baldwin Park, and I was talking to Dave. I said, Dave, how are you feeling? And he started to talk to me, but then he fell asleep. He's so weak, he just fell asleep. So I thought, okay, I'm here. I'm going to just sit here and pray for him. And then I stood up after a little bit of prayer, and I looked out the window, and I saw the beautiful mountains on a clear day. One of the things I love about California. And when I saw that, I remembered, man, God is going to heal David on this side or the other. That's Christmas, on this side or the other. Dave's been walking with Jesus for most of his life. He had his little devotion on his Bible right there on his bedside table. I find that when Christians near death, a lot of them just want the word of God to be read to them, to remind them. And so Dave, if you're watching, you're listening. I'm praying, we're praying that God would heal you.

and keep you with us. That's what we do in our humanity. But at the same time, we know you will be healed and the mountains will be your playground. And the oceans, the depths of the oceans will be something you do for the rest of eternity. Swimming with the whales and the dolphins, the stars, the planets, too numerous to count, will be where you vacation. But you will be with Jesus. And because you are with Jesus, and because you did the man thing, And you said, I cannot do this on my own. God has wired me to lead, but I got to be led by the ultimate leader. And you humbled yourself before the cross and you gave your life to him. That set the trajectory of your life totally in a different plateau. And suddenly you're here, trajectory changes, Now, you're on a one-way ticket to heaven. Listen, that's what Christmas ultimately is about. A savior saved you from your sins so that you could live in eternity with God. Think about the names. I read that. I'm going to finish, and I've gone too long here. The first passage I read in Isaiah 9, I love this. Wonderful. This is who he is. Wonderful counselor with you every step of the way. Mighty God. Unlimited power.

Everlasting Father. Oh, there's no end to this father-son relationship. Prince of Peace. That's why you have peace in your life. So guys, in the words of Joe Biden, come on, man.

Give your life to him. Father, thank you for your love for us, for this holiday season. I pray that fire us up for this Christmas season to remember, yes, it's about a baby born in a manger, but that baby becomes a man and that man dies for the sins of the world and all who would call on his name, really call on his name, will be saved. So I pray, Lord Jesus, you'd touch our hearts and help us realize the aggressiveness of Christmas in the middle of a gentleness.

The aggressiveness to defeat sin, death, and evil once and for all so that the new kingdom may be ushered in and we may live forever. In Christ's name, everybody said.