The Miraculous Bookends of the Christmas Story | Lisa Harper

Pastor Earl and Pastor Onika are so kind to me, but every time he introduces me, I think he's going to be struck by lightning because that is like an eHarmony profile. It's not nearly that good. He knows where all the bodies are buried and he just chooses to tell you the good parts. I do want to say this because if you're here, you know, sometimes you just get used to a place and you think, well, this is just how everybody does church. And it's not how everybody does church. I was reading about Christian leadership a few weeks ago from one of my pretend theological boyfriends, Dr. Charles Spurgeon. I can claim them as pretend boyfriends if they're dead because then their wives won't get mad at me, but great leader from the 1800s in the UK. And he said this about ministry. He said, ministers have to be hard workers, but they also have to be hot workers because their hearts have to be on fire. And the very first time I met Pastor Earl and Pastor Onika, you could almost sense the fire on their heart. And when you see somebody who's on fire, inflamed by Holy Spirit, and that's balanced by humility, that's a rare gift. And so they have made redemptive marks on our family. We will never be the same because of y'all. The first time I had the undeserved privilege of being with y'all at the old campus, I thought they think they've invited Lisa Turkhurst or Lisa Bevere, and I'm not telling them. It's me because my dear friend Onika and I are both real close friends with Christine Kane. And Chris said, if you ever get a chance to worship with the saints at Shoreline City, you'll walk away changed. And that has been the truth every single time. So I just want to say thank you. I know you can invite anybody from all over the world. I love y'all so much. I'm planning on her second son to marry my only daughter because I want to be connected. I want to be real family, not just that I've ingratiated myself with y'alls. And I want to acknowledge this too. If I had gotten myself out of bed and come out in the cold to church, and I found out Pastor Earl and Pastor O weren't preaching, I would pretend I had to go to the bathroom and I would go to Lupe Tortillas. And so the fact that y'all are staying here with your, I just have claimed y'all as family. So I'm going to be your, your old pale Nana. But I'm very, very grateful to get to be here. Now, since I've claimed y'all as family, I'm going to start with some, some family freedom, because I don't think you should have to wear Spanx in the family. And so before we dive into the text this morning, we're going to be in the gospel of Luke. We're going to look at the, the parentheses, kind of the brackets of the Christmas story. We're going to be in Luke

one and the end of Luke two. Before we dive into that, I want to do two liberating busting Christmas myths. Are you with me? First myth we're going to bust is that Santa is the archetypal Darth Vader of Christmas. How many of you grew up? Um, I grew up Bapticostal. My mama's Baptist of the bone. Dad's Pentecostal. How many of y'all grew up in a conservative stream of the church? How many of y'all were taught once you get older, that if you're serious about your faith, you got to somehow kick Santa into the curb because he represents all that's materialistic about Christianity. Lie, lie, big fat myth. If you'll go with me all the way back to the first, first century, one of the biggest, and I love kids in church. Keep your babies. Don't worry about your babies in church. Um, point I told the second service when I see Christians or at least pew sitters, actually cushy chair sitters. Are any of y'all old enough to have ever sat in a pew? Okay. How many of y'all are under 30? Baby pews are long wooden benches that we used to say they wanted you to hurt back in the day when you came to church. Now you got cup holders and all kinds of stuff. But anyway, um, it, I was taught that if you're serious about your faith, you had to hate Santa because Santa was all American. But if you go back to the fourth century to Christian history, one of the, well, the first world leader who was a Christian is emperor Constantine. Y'all pay attention and world history in high school. Okay. Constantine was a radio. Most y'all like, uh, I know I didn't either. Um, although we had a young single teacher and I, he was cute. So sometimes I pay attention by the way, I'm 62 and single. And so, um, if y'all have any old uncles who are single, like between 50 and death, I'll go younger. That would be so cool. But anyway, it could be my Christmas present anyway. Um, And Constantine was a world leader in the fourth century. And during the middle of his reign, he was facing his brother-in-law, this epic battle. And whoever won that battle was gonna become the world leader. And so the night before the battle, he had a dream. And Jesus appeared in the dream. And so when he won the battle the next day, he devoted his life to Christ. He believed that God was real.

He's the very first world leader who was a Christian. Prior to that, Christianity was founded with the incarnate ministry of Jesus Christ. Prior to Constantine, Christians were marginalized, hated. It grew, if you read during the book of Acts, but it was never embraced by the world culture. Christians were hated. By the third century, Christians were martyred oftentimes. Y'all probably read about the gladiatorial arena in Rome. I've been there. And you see where the sand was soaked with the blood of martyrs because they called it entertainment to herd Christians into the arena in Rome and bring in mad heifers or lions or leopards or gladiators with swords and kill Christians. So prior to Constantine, Christians were marginalized and often murdered. So Constantine becomes a Christian and says, no more. As the leader of the world as we know it, I'm gonna say I want everybody to learn about the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. He also said, y'all are about to lose this thing anyway because y'all got heretics all over the world who are spewing all kinds of stuff that's not biblical. Now, mind you, we didn't have our New Testament canon then. They had not organized the books of the New Testament. And so they're young in their face. So people were saying all kinds of crazy stuff about Christ that was not biblically sound.

One of the common heresies of that era was that when Jesus came to earth that first Christmas, he sullied himself because to hang out with the likes of us, surely his divinity was somehow diluted. So there are heretics who were saying, Jesus is the lesser version of God. So Constantine says, the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna establish a template for this belief system called Christianity because this building has no scaffolding and it's gonna tumble. So he gathers together about 400 of the top leaders, Christian leaders, who've been hard workers and their hearts are on fire. And he says, I want you to come together and y'all are gonna gather. They met together for over a month. Y'all are gonna pray, you're gonna seek the wisdom of God through Holy Spirit, and you're gonna establish basically the groundwork for Christianity as we know it today. Do y'all remember the city they met in? Nicaea, 325 AD, 400 leaders. One of the leaders was from a place that we would now call Turkey, and his name was Saint Nicholas. And he had been beaten for his faith, grew up wealthy, parents died when he was young. Instead of living the high life, he decided to dedicate himself to the ministry of God.

And he gave away his wealth mostly to impoverished children. He was known for getting down low so the kids could get on his lap and giving gifts to children who had no way to have gifts. He came to Nicaea in 325 AD, and with a group of 400-ish other saints, they wrote the Nicene Creed. Now, the Nicene Creed predates the wonderful Shoreline City Creed, and even if you didn't grow up in a Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, Episcopalian tradition, this is the scaffolding of our faith as Christians. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being in one substance with the Father by whom all things are made. It goes on, I won't read the rest of it, but guess whose name is signed at the bottom of the Nicene Creed that all of our other creeds as Christians come from? Saint Nicholas. So when you've got hateful Christians who want something to fuss about on social media, Lord, have mercy, we've gotta discipline our thumbs. We have so much vitriol in our culture,

and some of it is perpetrated by Christ followers. I'm like, don't fuss at your neighbors because they've gotta blow up Santa. Don't tell your kids, we are not having Santa because we are serious Christians. I'm like, you're hateful Christians is what you are. If you go back behind the cartoon Santa, in the 1800s, there was a poem written about Saint Nicholas. That's where you get the jolly guy coming down a chimney. An illustrator who probably had drank a bang or Celsius and was a little too animated, took artistic license. He's the one who put him in a red velvet suit with white fur trim. Those are made up. Those are caricaturized. But St. Nicholas was a godly man in the fourth century. Last recorded act of his life, they had to bring out a cushion in church and he knelt down on the cushion. He was 95 years old. Hardly anybody lived that late. You can still, by the way, get his devotions on Amazon. Knelt down and gathered all the children of his parish, most of whom were poor, and gave them gifts and then explained to them the gift that never goes away and that is the gift of the presence of Jesus Christ. So it's a myth that Santa is the Darth Vader of Christmas. Goodness gracious, y'all, as Christians, let's find places to build bridges with people who don't yet know

the unconditional love of Christ. Why fight about Santa when you connect about Jesus Christ? Second myth that I wanna just completely eviscerate this morning as your bossy nana is no one has a perfect Christmas. No such thing. I don't care if you're from Bishop Arts or Highland Park. If you live in Africa or you live on the backside of Nashville, Tennessee, which is why I use extra syllables when I talk. No one has a perfect Christmas, hear me. I don't care if you're white, black, Hispanic. I don't care if you're from Brazil, if you're from Orlando. I don't care if you have kids. I don't care if keto worked for you. If you're married or you have a golden doodle or you're divorced or divorced again, no one has a perfect Christmas. Y'all, that's what's biblically defensible, why? Because this isn't our home. Paul says we are aliens and strangers here. So some people get what they want at Christmas. And you thought if I get a Ford F-150 and a man to go with it, I'll be happy. I'll never ask for another gift. If I get the promotion, if I get the metabolism, if my father ever acknowledges me, if, if, if, and there's this never ending list and I'm telling you, doesn't matter if you get your whole list this year.

The list will just add up because we're aliens and strangers here. So you watch television or YouTube and you go, oh man, I wish I had a Christmas like them. And I'm like, you're smoking the wrong medicine. That's not the hope for Christians. If you're a Christ follower, hope and hurt are not incongruent. As a matter of fact, if you really read the Christmas story, there's celebration and sobriety, which should cause us to grow up as God's people. Because when we don't get what we want, that actually can lead to faith. Because faith is about what? Things what? Unseen. Yeah. And we tend to let what we don't get fuel our disillusionment and disappointment. And just like the people in Malachi, they say, if you're such a good God, then why didn't we get what we want? One of the last things God's people say before the silent years. Very last book in our Old Testament canon. Do you know what his response was to them when they said, if you're such a good God, then why do our lives look like this? Do you know what he said? Christmas is around the corner.

He said, Christmas is around the corner. The Lord whom you are seeking, Malachi chapter three, the Lord whom you're seeking will suddenly come into his temple. And he said, so you descendants of Jacob, sons and daughters in Dallas, so you won't be destroyed. Because his presence is promised. Aren't you glad we live on this side of the first advent? Aren't you glad we can look back and go, he came. He actually came. Which means Christmas for us is not December 25th. Christmas for us is every moment of every single day because it's about the incarnate reality of Jesus Christ. A God who loves us so much that he became like us so as to save us. So let's look at the brackets, because the brackets are kind of hard. The brackets involve waiting. And I don't know about you, but I am not a good waiter, but man alive, I love these stories. Luke chapter one. And we're gonna begin with verse 12. Remember, Luke is the only Gentile author of scripture. And so he always. He always has kind of this outsider vantage point. He's so interesting, because he's not in the in crowd. He's more of an outlier. He's also a physician.

Most of the writers are not that educated. So he's very specific. He gives us all the details. He gives us details in the Christmas story the other writers don't give us. And this story is about, you've got two couples that are the bookends of Christmas. And the first couple, both couples are like wearing Depends. They're old, both couples. First couple's married, Zachariah and Elizabeth. Second couple, they're just friends, Simeon and Anna, they're the end of Luke. They're the couples on either side of Joe and Mary. And the miracles in these stories, I'm telling you, if you can soak in it for a minute, they make the Christmas miracle even bigger. Zachariah is old, old, old, old. So I want y'all to imagine he's Jewish, so let's just call him off-white. And so you know how old white men lose their heinies? My apologies if you're old and white in here, and a man, but they're khakis, like have the little hangy-down part in the back. So just imagine a saggy khaki guy in Skechers, because he's old. And so you've got old Zachariah, you've got his wife, Elizabeth, she's old too. And she's of a, her lineage is legit too,

because she comes from the tribe of Aaron. He's a priest, so he comes, he's Levitical tribe. So their bios are impressive, but the fact that they are childless means they're stigmatized in that culture. If you're a woman and you don't have children in this culture, it is like a woman in stretchy pants and horizontal stripes nowadays. It's just, it's not a good thing. And so Zachariah is a priest, but that doesn't mean like Pastor Earl, he works every day at the church. Because in first century, this culture, Semitic culture, priests worked full time, most of them as farmers. And then they'd be called up when their division was gonna serve in temple. And so the story we're gonna dive into is Zachariah, old khaki pants, has just been called up to temple. He's with 300-ish other priests, that's how many would be kind of in a division at that time. And he's been tapped. They would choose lots. So it's almost like a little bit of Christian gambling. They would choose lots. And his lot, out of all 300, he's the one who is chosen to actually go into temple. So he's kind of won the spiritual power ball. So you can just imagine, he's texting Elizabeth going, you're not gonna believe this, it's so awesome. I get to go in.

I'm serving and I'm going in. And then here's what happens when high-kneeless Zachariah goes into temple. And Zachariah was troubled, verse 12 of Luke chapter one, right before Jesus. He was troubled when he saw him and fear fell on him. Who did he see? Y'all can talk back, I'm not a pastor. Who did he see? Gabriel. It's not listed here as Gabriel. And some of us think Gabriel just appeared on the scene with Mary and said, behold, you're gonna have a son. And she said, how? I'm in the seventh grade. I've never even been to homecoming. Prior to that, Gabriel, and according to scripture, an angel was very, very large. Most Bible scholars guesstimate about 10 feet. And they glow. So Zachariah has gone into temple. I've actually dated a guy like that one time. Because I'm 62, so I keep being set up with pawpaws, which is great. But this pawpaw was, anyway, anyway, I digress. Sorry, pastor, you're gonna have to get up and clean up all this heresy. So Zachariah goes into temple and all of a sudden there's an angel.

And it says, fear fell on him. We'd be scared too. You walk up in Shoreline City and there's a 10 foot glowy guy in here. You'd probably be taken aback. You might need the pins at that point too. But the angel said to Zachariah, do not be afraid. For your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great before the Lord and he must not drink wine or strong drink. And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mama's womb. And then he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord, capital L, a people prepared. Y'all, this is the exact fulfillment of what God had spoken in Malachi. Zachariah is a priest, he knows the prophecies. God tells this old man, I'm not just giving you a child. Y'all asked for a child, I'm giving you a prophet. I'm giving you the forerunner to the Christ. And he becomes mute. He's so undone by this encounter with Gabriel,

he loses his voice. So just imagine, these are not fables, these are real stories. Imagine that old guy going home to Elizabeth. I don't know if they had an Etch-a-Sketch or what, but he's like, baby, you're about to have one. And she's like, you're kidding. He's like, no, let's go get some Mountain Dew and oysters. And they get marital. The Bible's much more specific, and she gets pregnant. And then this is interesting. Luke tells us she doesn't leave her home for five months. Why do you think she didn't go outside and talk to anybody about this for five months? Y'all can talk back. She's afraid she'll be mocked. She's afraid somebody will go, old lady, what are you doing? Yeah, speak native words. What are you thinking? I mean, that's a little grandiose. I mean, why didn't you just wish for like a Tesla? I mean, ain't no way you're going to have a baby. Your body is old. You're wearing Depends. It's a joke that you would think you'd have to buy Pampers. She waits until she's five months pregnant before she goes out. They didn't have sonograms in this ancient era. Right around the four to five month part is when what was called the quickening took place.

That's when the baby really starts kicking. That's where those of y'all who've carried, you know, when you can see your skin moves, the baby kicks so hard. It's not just a little tremor. It's anybody could tell that baby is doing back flips in your belly. So just imagine when she walks outside, people go. She's not just hoping for a miracle. I see the miracle. Now, I'm not going to dive deep into the Christmas story because Pastor Earl is going to preach on that. But you know that John the Baptist in utero is who confirms Mary's pregnancy. Because Mary, after she finds out that Gabriel tells her, he's busy this season, you're going to have a baby and he's going to be the Christ. Holy Spirit is going to come upon you, epicoma. So Holy Spirit isn't going to take you to dinner and do something tawdry. Holy Spirit is going to come beside you. It's a miracle that does not involve physical intimacy. Because in that era, those that believed in the, pagans believed in the Pantheon. They believed that those gods actually did date humans. And that's how they thought Zeus was a player. And he had a bunch of half human kids. That's all mythology. But they believe that Wonder Woman goes all the way back to a half God, half human, presumed pregnancy.

Didn't happen. But God makes it clear, no. Holy Spirit is going to come beside you. Same word, epicoma, by the way, that happened in Acts 2. So we've all been epicomied. If you put your hope in Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit is our comforter. Same Holy Spirit, the same power. It's just we walk anemic half the time. So when Mary has been told by the angel, you're pregnant too. Probably panics her, she's in the seventh or eighth grade. She goes to visit her relative who is Elizabeth. They don't have Facebook back then. She hasn't gotten any email. So just imagine teenage Mary walking up to see her great aunt who's old. And she walks out with a five month belly. Shoo, that was amazing. And John the Baptist starts to do back flips in Elizabeth's belly. And in that moment, Mary knows, I'm pregnant. Gabriel told me, but I'm pregnant. Listen to this, it's never just about you. The divine delay God allows us to shoulder when we go, I didn't get what I want this Christmas. If we go, you know what, I don't have to get what I want. Because His ways are always higher, always better. His stories are always better than what I hoped for. Our divine delays can confirm somebody else's miracle.

That old woman, five months pregnant. John the Baptist is the first testimony to the divinity of Jesus Christ. Amazing story. Then we get to an older couple where it depends. Now, before I tell you this story, this is in Luke. Where's my baby? Would you bring me those stockings? This is my daughter, Melissa Price Harper. She's amazing. I know you can't tell she's adopted, but her first mama passed in Haiti when Missy was a baby. And I don't have time to go in the whole story, but by the absolute grace. of God. I got woven into her story. She didn't have family. She was sick in Haiti. I'm not one who believes we take kids out of their home country. It's by the grace of God that I got to step into Missy's story. When I was in my 30s, the Lord just spoke real clear to me and said, I want you to still keep hoping that you'll be a mom. I was dumb as a rock in my 20s and 30s, scared, really drawn to abusive men. I didn't get married because I was scared and was really drawn to abusers. I didn't have children. In my late 30s, when I realized biologically I'm getting to the end of my story, I was in a store in Colorado Springs and I sensed, I hate it when people say God prompted me to buy something. I'm always like, he did not, but this was not about a purchase. It was about faith. I saw these stockings. These were just these antique stockings. I'd never hung stockings. I'd always been single, never had kids. I just sensed Holy Spirit say, I want you to buy those stockings because I just want you to believe that one day they'll be filled. I bought these stockings and I just, I never hung them up. Then I got woven into Missy's story in 2012. I lost two adoptions prior to Missy, one three days before I was bringing the baby girl home. Our adoption journey was very, very difficult. Missy almost passed. There was a lot of things that were hard dealing with the Haitian government. In October of 2013, I got the confirmation I'd

been waiting for for almost two years that told me I was going to bring Missy home from Haiti, that she'd be home by the end of October. I told you I love all the dead theologians, but I also love Clark Griswold. I thought, I'm going to decorate like nobody's ever decorated for Christmas before. I lived out in this teeny cottage south of Nashville, a little place called Leaper's Fork. I pulled these stockings out of the storage and I went to this bougie place in Nashville. Do you see how they're embroidered, Missy and Mama? Just in case they turn on the fireplace, I had them embroidered on the other side. Probably missed my mortgage that month because of these stockings. These stockings, they were like the centerpiece of my decorating. Then I had net lights on the neighbor's bushes. I'm surprised small planes didn't land. I can't even wrap words around how excited I was that I was going to have a baby girl for Christmas, 50 years old. Well, I was 49 at the time. I thought, I've gone through menopause. Sorry, guys. I'm going to be mama for the first time. I was so excited. Two weeks later, I got another, here, love, love. I got another message from Haiti and they said, you're not going to bring Missy home. You're not going to bring her home this year. It's likely you will never bring her home. Y'all, I remember the day. It was right before Halloween, 2013. I took those stockings and I put them in a box and I put them in storage under the stairs. I took down every single decoration and I packed it up and I shoved it in the garage. I thought, I will never decorate for Christmas again. I thought, it's too hard. I can't carry hope like this anymore. I've been disappointed too many times. I'm just going to fake it at Christmas. I don't want to pour cold water on your Christmas parade, but I thought, I can't do this again. This is too hard. I've got a Jerry Springer family. I got no man. I got no metabolism. I got no baby. I thought, I'm not, I can't carry hope anymore. And that Christmas, 2013, God showed me this story. I'd never really marinated much in this story. It's the other side of the Christmas story. It begins in Luke chapter two, verse 22, right after Mary's pondering these things in her heart, right after the shepherds, right after the barn in Bethlehem. It's actually six weeks later based on Mosaic law, because according to Mosaic law, if you have a baby boy and it's your first child and it's a son, you have to go to temple and you have to thank God, Yahweh, for having a baby boy. And that's at the 40th day. And so Mary, who was 13, 14, 15 years old at the time, which was their culture, and Joseph, who was probably in his early thirties, Mary and Joseph go to temple with six week old baby Jesus.

The light of the world Emmanuel God with us and here's what happened verse 22 Luke and when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses They brought him Jesus Up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord as it is as it is written in the law of the Lord every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and To offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and this man was righteous and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel The Holy Spirit was upon him and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death That's why most scholars think he was old too. Probably saggy khakis before he had seen the Lord's Christ And he came in the spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law he took him up in his arms and blessed God and Said our English Bibles say said in the original Greek The New Testament was originally written in Greek a little bit of Aramaic. The word is actually saying So this old man volunteering at temple much like Zechariah had been turns around and sees this relatively young couple little girl a little bit older guy with a six-week-old old infant and Simeon in that moment because of Holy Spirit goes. Oh, it's the Christ and He begins to sing and what he sings is Basically, I have seen the Christ many of our Christmas carols are based on that first song Simeon saying when he saw the Christ And then there was a woman Anna the daughter of Faneuil verse 36 a prophetess of the tribe of Asher Asher means happy But she didn't have a happy life She was Advanced in years having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin So she married at 12 or 13 or 14 then was married for seven years before he died So she's in her early 20s and then as a widow until she was 84 the Greek there actually Alludes to the fact that she was probably it was 22 plus 84. So she's probably 106 at the very least. She's 84 She's old She's old. She's not even wearing Skechers. She's in a scooter

She did not depart from the temple worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. Listen to that y'all Waiting time is not wasted time for Christ followers Because he always has a better story so instead of whining and saying I can't believe I'm in my 20s and I'm not getting what I want for Christmas and there are No stockings on my mantle because I'm not gonna have kids I'm gonna trust that he has a better story so for Decades she goes to temple now. She's not allowed in the same part of temple where? Simeon is serving but in my Imagination CS Lewis talks about having a sanctified Imagination I imagine her back in the ladies wet restroom She's cleaning up something and she hears Simeon begin to sing and you know How when old people sing sometimes it sounds like they're hurt Sounds more like it like a dog being hit by a car. She hears that screeching goes Oh, no, he's broken his hip again, and it says Anna Advanced in age boy. I can identify with that 50 years old when I got to bring my daughter home. I'm 62 Every year that I hang those stockings. I actually now have so many Embroidered mom and missy stockings. It's gross. I mean, I probably have 10 pair but every single year y'all When I get those stockings out, I think I couldn't I couldn't I didn't have the faith to carry this kind of miracle. I Can't believe he gave me this daughter. I'm not happy that her first mama died. Her name is Marie It's so impoverished this village in Haiti, there's no pictures of her But I love that. My daughter's Haitian. I'm not trying to make her white I love that she's Haitian and I love her first mama. I'm so sorry Marie had to die I got written in the story after I can't wait to get to glory and meet missy's first mama and say Would you look at what God has done with our daughter and I've worked hard on her hair. I mean Can't wait to meet her. I couldn't have written this story. I Couldn't have written it and here you've got Anna and she hears Simeon begin to holler and she comes

From the bathroom and she goes into the temple and she sees her friend holding a six-week-old, baby And in that moment a Holy Spirit says to this woman who's been waiting for at least 60 years. Oh, it's Emmanuel. God with us. And she runs to send me and y'all, the story's better. The story's better. And it's not better because they get everything they want. It's better because God is in the weight. God is in the ache. We have an empathetic high priest. It's a lie to think if I get this, my Christmas will finally be wonderful. It'll finally be like my sister who has a minivan and 47 children and a husband who works in finance and she, they've got a house. No, your Christmas isn't going to be better because of that. Our Christmases, every moment of every day get better when we recognize he's with me. He's with me. God with me, Emmanuel. I don't need anything else. That's what Job said. Do you know, before he got what he wanted, before his life was restored, before he got the kids back and the money back and the health back before he got anything back when he had no stockings on the mantle and his life was hard, Job said, my ears had heard of you, but now, now my eyes have seen you. And he said, as long as I've got your presence, I don't need any gifts. As long as I've got your presence, don't miss the miracle and the ache this Christmas. He may have given you something to carry that other people in your life will recognize. The trueness of God, not because your life is bright and shiny, but because in the seasons that aren't bright and shiny, you are hanging on to hope. You're saying, my God is good when my life is anything, but my life is, my God is good. Let me get y'all to stand up. Pastor Earl's going to close this family meeting and I apologize for being bossy. I know I haven't earned the right to come and just assume the role as a loud auntie in this family, but I'm going to ask you to do something that I don't have the right to ask you to do. I'm going to ask you to be honest. And as pastor comes up to pray for us, I'm going to ask you, if you are in a difficult season this Christmas, and it may be nothing you've done, it may not be a consequence, it might just be the fall. You come from a broken home and it's always hard to decide whether you go to mom or dad's first. You're struggling with infertility. You have a prodigal. You thought for sure they'd be home at Thanksgiving and they haven't. Even text. You prayed that the lump would be benign and you just found out it's malignant. This Christmas, you're tempted to pull a John Grisham and just skip it. You'll fake it. You'll put on a happy face at all the heart parties, but it is hard. If you're in a hard season this Christmas, could I ask you to just trust the comfort and the goodness of God in this moment?

And would you sit down because we really want to pray with you and for you just sit down. Maybe it's hard because you lost someone you love. I did a Christmas tour last week and I called my mama and she didn't recognize my voice and it about killed me. Some of y'all are caring for an aging parent or you lost them last year and you don't even want to make the family recipes because they're not there this year. Your heart's heavy because you're human. You're human. A golden doodle is not going to fill the hole. A marriage is not going to fill the hole. Money is not going to fill the hole. New cars, it is the presence of Christ. Emmanuel. If you're hurting this Christmas, would you just sit down? Those of you who have the privilege of standing around one of these honest saints, one of these brothers or these sisters, would you gather around them and just lay a hand on them? That's not a shoreline city tradition. That is biblical. Jesus himself says there's moments we lay hands on each other as a sign of I'm believing for you. I'm circling the wagons. You are family to me. I will take a corner of your mat and carry you to the roof and lower you to Jesus. If you're not sure what to pray, you can simply pray that they would recognize the nearness of God because he promises to be close to the brokenhearted. He promises to be near to us when our lives feel crushed. He is with you, with you, with you. Christmas has been inaugurated. Jesus is with you. And he's coming again. Let's continue to pray for him, yeah. God hears your prayers. You don't have to know the person's name. You've heard before. What would you want somebody to pray over you? Lord, I ask that our hands in this moment would be your hands. That our voice would be your voice. And you begin to wash over the hearts, the minds, the bodies, the memories of your sons and daughters. These amazing people who would give, take this step of faith and sit down. Holy Spirit, would you stand up on the inside of them. We ask for your grace.

We ask for your power. We pray that you would wipe tears from our eyes. That you would draw us so close to you. I ask that there would be even, they would know that they're surrounded, not just in this moment, but even when they go home and they're driving in their car today. And even in those moments where they feel like nobody knows and understands that this moment would come back to their memory and they would know that no weapon formed against them is able to prosper. That they would know that there's a God in heaven that's fighting battles on their behalf, even behind the scenes. That they would know there's a church family that's willing to stand in the gap. We ask you, Lord God, to do what only you can do. Reach deep into our souls, deep into our hearts. Minister your hope and your healing and your life. In the moments when we are overwhelmed. In the moments when we're not sure we have strength to take another step. Would you be an ever-present help in that time of trouble? That even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not fear any evil. Because you are with us. We speak your grace and your love and your hope over every one of these amazing individuals. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.