For All People | Pastor Adam Peterson

And before we get rocking and rolling, let me look into the camera and welcome our online family that's watching us from wherever you are. Merry Christmas to you guys, and then Rise Church family, help me out. I wanna shout out all the men and women in the correctional facilities that are joining us. Come on, Merry Christmas. You are our church family. We are so grateful, so grateful that you are here with us today. My message title tonight is simply this. For all people, for all people, and you didn't shout it out, so apparently the title of my message is not that great, but let me explain to you why you should have clapped and go, yeah, that's a great message title. The Christmas message isn't just for me. It's not just for the person sitting beside you. It's for all of us. The Christmas message, come on, is for all people that Jesus stepped out of heaven, came down to broken humanity to be the savior of a broken, hurting, desperate world who needed him. And Jesus came, he was Emmanuel, God with us, and he is, don't get it twisted, he is the reason for the season. Amen. But I also love Christmas. I love all the things that accompany,

I am Mr. Christmas in my house, right? Like I love all the things that accompany Christmas, and I just need you to know like tonight, we're gonna celebrate Jesus, we're gonna celebrate the fun of Christmas, and I love how the message is for all people. Here's what I mean when I say all people. It's for people who are excited to be here. All right, got a few of you in the house, that's good. Hey, it's also for people who were forced to be here tonight. And if that's you, I just wanna first and foremost say I'm so sorry somebody forced you to be here tonight, but we are glad you're here, all right? Some of you men look like not only were you forced to be here, you were told what to wear. You look amazing, all right? You look good, all right? Come on, here's what it is. It's for people who are already following Jesus. Hey, it's for people who aren't following Jesus. Just because you're not a follower of Jesus doesn't mean that Jesus isn't following after you, because he wants a relationship with you. It's for people who are searching. Hey, if you're here tonight and you're searching, we're so glad you're here, so glad you're here. This is a safe place. It's for people maybe who are giving God and maybe church just one more chance.

The message of Christmas is for all people. Now, let's have a little bit of fun just to kind of get things going, loosen everybody up, because I see some of y'all are like, you said it short. Is it done yet? No, no, no, not yet, not yet, all right? I'm gonna put some stuff up here. I told you I loved Christmas. I'm gonna put some things, some images on the screen. If you love some of these things about Christmas, just make a little bit of noise. How many of you love the Little Debbie Trees? Yeah? Nasty. Where my people at? Who does not like the Little, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just, it's too much icing, it's too much, it's, it's. Whoa, whoa. I've never been booed before in my message. All it took was Little Debbie Treats. My wife is probably joining you in the booing right now. She has a slight addiction to these things, and so, yeah, Little Debbie, you know, Big Deborah, whatever you wanna call it, like, let's go. All right, how many of you enjoy this, some eggnog? All right, all right. Nasty. Where my people at? Yeah, there's more of us than there are of you, all right? Here's what I like to say about eggnog.

There's a reason why eggnog only comes around during the Christmas season, right? You ever seen somebody sitting on their front porch, June? Florida heat, just sipping on eggnog? No, right? Because it's nasty, it's nasty. Come on, how many of you love Christmas lights? Ah. I love Christmas lights. It's like, it's like the inner child of me just comes out. My wife's like, I want the white, the warm white lights. I'm like, tacky, tacky, tacky Christmas, man. I want all the color, all the, I'll take some white, some color, I want it all, man. I want it, and I just throw the lights on. I don't even care what it looks like. Come on, how many of you love Christmas movies? Yeah. At my age, some of you older people, you understand this. It takes about three nights to watch a Christmas movie, you know what I'm saying? You fall asleep at some point, knurling it, but there ain't nothing like a good Christmas movie. And then I got one more for you. And if you know, you know, all right? We're talking about the Chick-fil-A. Peppermint, and from the applause here tonight, it appears that many of you don't know, raise your hand if you've never had this milkshake

a day in your life. All right, I have failed. church as a pastor. All right, here's what I'm gonna say. Lean in because I'm about to change your life. Okay, here's what you're gonna do. You ready? You're gonna get in the car. You're gonna, you might need to leave right now. Don't leave now. You're gonna get in the car tonight, tomorrow, not Sunday, and you're gonna go and you're and you're gonna order a peppermint chip milkshake from Chick-fil-a and you're gonna take that first sip and you're gonna go, I love my pastor. You're gonna, you're gonna be like, he's the greatest man in the world. He is, it's Jesus and Pastor Adam because this is, this is how, somebody told me, this is Christmas in your mouth right here, okay? You're gonna, you're gonna have your firstborn son, you're gonna name him Adam, okay? Because this is gonna change your life. No, I kid you not, I kid you not. A friend of mine in this church texted me at nine o'clock this morning. He said, I'm drinking it right now. I said, I didn't know they served milkshakes at nine o'clock. He said, they do and it's the greatest thing I've ever had. Nine o'clock in the morning, a nine o'clock milkshake, that sounds amazing. Come on. All right, so that, just, just, just so you're aware, like, just do it, okay? Just do it, okay? One of my favorite things about Christmas, one of my favorites, are Christmas commercials. Not all of them are created equal, some are terrible, but every once in a while, a Christmas commercial will come out that'll just pull at your heartstrings, and it'll just, I mean, I'm talking, you think you're not an emotional person, and just, you're cutting onions, man, like the tears are flowing. And this commercial came out years ago, and it's one that I've just remembered from time to time, and I thought, oh, this is gonna be perfect for my message. And so, it's about two minutes long, so we're gonna watch this Christmas commercial together. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ I already got my grandfather name, it's Pappy. It's gonna be Pappy Peterson, and I'm gonna be Jack. You got two grandkids, they're both going up. You know what I'm saying, like two stars on the tree. But I love this commercial. The grandfather had a plan, but his plan required preparation. In order to carry out the plan, he had to prepare for it. He had to lift those weights to get ready to do the thing that he wanted to do. Here's the message of Christmas. God had a plan. We sinned, Adam and Eve sinned, sin entered the world. God had a plan for the sin, he sent a savior. But God's plan required preparation.

And Jesus Christ steps up on the scene and goes, I am willing and I am ready to carry out the plan of my father. I will step down out of heaven, and I will come to earth to be the savior. Listen, for all people. Yeah! Woo! Woo! Yeah! Woo! And we're kind of a happy, clappy church in this place. So if I say something that responds with you, feel free to shout out a yeah, uh-huh, mm, if you wanna grunt, clap, smile maybe, that might help. Because the message of Christmas is, he came for you. He loves you. He wants a relationship with you. And his plan was so amazing and so awesome. He had angels announce it. Come on, Luke chapter two. It says, that night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby. They were guarding their flocks of sheep, and suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. This would have been a crazy moment. Let's read on. It says, they were terrified. You'd be terrified too if an angel showed up amongst you.

But the angel reassured them, no, no, no, no, you don't have to be afraid. Because I'm bringing you good news. Somebody say good news. Good news. Good news that will bring great joy. Come on, here it is. To all people. Say to all people. To all people. The Savior. Yes, the Messiah. And that word Messiah means the one who was told who is coming to save people from their sins. The one they've been talking about all throughout the Old Testament. He's coming, he's coming, he's coming. He's here. The Lord, he has been born today in Bethlehem. The Savior of the world is bringing good news. What is this good news? Here's a couple things that I wrote down. The good news is that no matter your past, God can change your future. The good news is that we couldn't get to God, so God came to us. Oh, that's good news. The good news is that we were sinners and God still loved us. Now, in order for there to be good news,

there has to be bad news. How many of you are the type of person that if somebody walks up to you and they're like, I got good news and I got bad news, how many of you wanna hear the bad news first so hopefully the good news can outweigh the bad news? How many of you psychos wanna hear the good news first? And then, I don't understand that, I don't understand that. The bad news is this, you're a sinner. That's bad news. And your sin separates you from God. And the really bad news is if you never call upon Jesus to come into your life to save you, to rescue you from your sin, to forgive you, you're gonna stay stuck in your sin, you're gonna breathe your last breath here on earth, and you will experience an eternal punishment that the Bible calls hell, it's real. And I know this isn't popular preaching, but I'm not trying to win a popularity contest, I'm trying to help you understand your need for God in your life. And the bad news is you're a sinner that needs a savior, but the good news is the moment you realize you need a savior, that savior will come into your life and he will give you something, listen, he will give you something that you could not earn, he will give you something that you don't deserve, he will give you his love and his forgiveness and his grace and his mercy and his kindness,

that's good news. And one more time, that good news is for all people, it's for all of us. I love that about Jesus. I heard a story of a little boy that wrote a letter to Santa, he said, Santa, there's three boys in our house, Henry is never good, Leon is sometimes good, Jacob is always good, P.S., I'm Jacob. Maybe you can relate to that. Some of you might be honest in here and go, hey, pretty much my whole life, I've been never good, I've made some terrible decisions. Some of you might say, actually, you know what, I'm sometimes good, I'm never good, I'm never good, I'm never good, good sometimes I get it right sometimes I don't some of you might be like I I'm never good, I'm never good, I'm never good, I'm never good, don't want to brag but I'm kind of kind of always do the right thing I like what I'm never good, I'm never good, Paul says here in first Timothy maybe you can relate to this he says here's a trustworthy saying which is basically Paul saying like you can take this to the bank man like this is real like don't want I don't want you to forget this here's a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance this is good news you ready Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and then Paul drops this line ooh and I think I might be the worst of them all anybody can relate to that in here tonight how many of you think you might be the worst person in the room tonight okay how many of you like I'm not great but I'm probably sitting next to the worst person in the room tonight all right yeah yeah yeah we know we know Paul goes on and goes hey I need you guys to

understand this we serve a great King we serve an amazing Savior and he came into the world to save sinners and I need you to understand something I might be the worst which is Paul saying if he can do it for me he can do it for you and you're like I don't know man I'm pretty I've kind of lived a rough life let me tell you a little bit about brother Paul here he used to be Saul used to go around killing Christians ripping families apart throwing people in jail you are JV compared to him that means that it doesn't matter how dark your past is the light of Jesus can shine in cuz the message of Christmas one more time is for all people so let me emphasize this in a little bit of a fun way okay having fun in church a little bit now listen I'm not here to entertain you I'm not an entertainer I'm a pastor but I do want to engage you and one of the ways I love engaging people is through laughter and fun so we're gonna have a little bit of fun here's what I mean when I mean all people it means a he came for the artists the angry the arrogant the atheist and the annoying ants raise your hand if you got one yeah we know we know he came for the belly dancers the bullies people who love blue jeans the basket cases and the Baptist he came for the cat lovers the critics of cat lovers he came for the controlling the condescending and and the crazy and here's what way we like to say it is everybody has at least one crazy person in their family and if you're sitting there trying to think who's the crazy person in our family it's you it's you all right he came for the drug dealer the drag queen Democrats droolers and he came for all of say it with me all right now all right now I'm not gonna say we're the best church in the city I'm not gonna say it but I dare you to find another church in Jacksonville at their Christmas services that just got the whole congregation to let out a Duvall all right I'm just that's all I'm gonna say all right he came for the environmentalists the evolutionists the Elvis impersonators came for Eminem and anybody that's that's evil he came for failures speaking of failures he came too soon too soon he came for Florida Gator fans Florida State fans he came

for firemen hey listen he came for the faithless he came for you he came for the grandmas and the grandpas the greedy the grouchy the guilty and the gassy and you know who you are stop stop blaming it on others he came for the hipsters the haters the homeless the homosexual and the homophobic hey hey he came for all people he came for the introverts the influencers the inmates the indifferent and even the IRS agents and if you're sitting here going are we going all the way to Z you better believe we're going all the way to Z he came for the jugglers people born in June and July jam and jelly lovers jelly roll and the Jacksonville Jaguars he came for Chloe Courtney Kim Kendall Kylie Chris and if you don't get that reference just consider yourself blessed and highly favored by the Lord came for Kanye and he came for all the Karens and if you're a Karen in here tonight I am so sorry that our world has done this to you we do not believe we do not put you in that category in Jesus name unless you are one then stop it all right he came He came for the lazy, the liars, the lunch ladies, the liberals, and the lost. He came for mean people, mean moms, mean men, McDonald's workers, and the military. He came for the needy, the nosy, the narcissistic, the narrow-minded, and even ninjas. He came for the obnoxious, the obscene, the obscure, the overbearing, and everybody with onion breath. He came for the prisoner, the president, police officers, pill pushers, and the prideful. He came for all people. This one got a little tricky. He came for the quiet, the quilters, queens, Queen Latifah, and everybody that's questioning, everybody that's still looking. He came for Republicans, rebellious, real estate agents, real housewives, and road ragers. He came for the sarcastic, the stubborn, smokers, strippers, and anybody that's living in shame. He came for you, and you don't have to stay in that shame. He came for terrorists. He came for teens, transgender, train wrecks, and even.

I didn't want to write this one on here. Even the Tennessee Titans. He came for UFC fighters, the unique, the unqualified, the uninformed, and the unhinged. He came for the vaccinated, the violent, the vegans, the vampires, and everybody that's had a vasectomy. He came for the whiny, the wicked, the weary, the woke, and the Waffle House waitress. Show me some grace on the next one. He came for the x-ray technician, the xylophone player, the Xerox worker, people who love Xanadu, the movie, and everybody that says Merry X-mas, which can we stop saying that? Can we just say Merry Christmas? All right, that's just a personal thing. He came for the young, the yellers, the Yankees, the yogi, people that do yoga, and everybody that's a yapper. You know who you are? You probably don't know who you are, actually. He came for the zookeepers, the zany, people that zig, people that zag, and everybody whose bank account reads zilch right now because of Christmas. Hey, come on somebody, he came! All people. All people. And you're all people. You're all people. Now, I want to close with another fun illustration that is a little more serious. But growing up, I loved Christmas movies, and probably my favorite Christmas movie of all time, probably still to this day, is the movie Home Alone. The reason I love Home Alone is I was a kid when I watched it, and so I just related to Kevin McCallister, and I thought, that would be awesome, man, yeah, I want to do that. And in the movie Home Alone, there's this scene that happens towards really the beginning of the movie, and Kevin kind of does some things and causes some turmoil, and his mom looks at him in a move of really great parenting or very questionable parenting, tells him

to go upstairs and sleep in the attic all by himself. She kind of follows him up there, and this dialogue ensues between the two of them. And Kevin says to his mom, everybody in this family hates me. And his mom says back to him, well, then maybe you should ask Santa for a new family. And as an eight-year-old boy, this is what he says back to his mom. I don't want a new family. I don't want any family. Families stink. Except he didn't say stink. Mom says, just stay up there. I don't want to see you again for the rest of the night. Kevin says, I don't want to see you again for the rest of my whole life, and I don't want to see anyone else either. The mom says, I hope you didn't mean that. You would feel pretty sad if you woke up tomorrow and you didn't have a family. To which Kevin responds, no, I wouldn't. And you know how the movie goes, right? Which if you don't, wow, right? Where you been? What's going on? Stop by Blockbuster on your way home and rent it, all right? Kevin gets what he wants. His family leaves. He's left home alone. And for a short time in the movie, he enjoys it. But then he quickly realizes, the thing I thought I wanted is not what I really want. The thing I thought that I wanted, it's not what I want. What I really want, I don't want to be home alone. What I really want is my family back. And you know how the movie goes, the family finally gets back and they're reunited and

everything and everybody's happy and all the feels. And I just felt like the Lord put something on my heart to speak into somebody's life in this place tonight. Somebody watching online. Just to tell you this. this, the thing you thought you wanted, if you were honest, deep down, it's not what you want. Deep down, if you were honest, like you were really raw and honest, you would say, I know I'm missing something in my life. See, the thing you thought you wanted was to do whatever you want, whenever you wanted, with no regard to God, just to do your own thing. But if you were real and honest, you would say, but I know I'm missing something. And maybe you're here in this place and you would say, well, so are you here to tell me what I'm missing? No, I'm not here to tell you what you're missing, but I am here to tell you, there is something you're searching for. You could cancel the search party tonight. There is a savior who loves you, who wants a relationship with you, and it could change everything for you.