When they say Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. Let's try that. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. It's absolutely true. Let me give you another aspect to think of. Christianity isn't just a religion, and it isn't just a relationship, it's also plain old history. You get the difference? Right? It is history. Christianity is history. I'll tell you one of the historical events that I believe God worked in my life, most very recently, and see if you can make sure you can focus in on me, if you would, please. About four years ago, We started a church in a little retail shop, and God was working and blessing. And then our church, we came together with another church, which had formerly been called West Side Baptist. Raise your hand if you've heard of that before, that name of that church before. Yeah, West Side Baptist. We came together with West Side Baptist. And then, later on, I met a pastor, Pastor Sam, of North Side Baptist. And North Side Baptist and West Side Baptist were both started by First Baptist. many, many years ago. I just think that's so neat that we're coming together here today, Northside Baptist, Covenant Baptist, who is merged with Westside Baptist for a Christmas service. Amen? I mean, I think that doesn't happen every day. And if you're new to Christianity or new to the church, let me just tell you, church folk don't always get along. So, it's a miracle. But, you're right, it's a Christmas miracle. But let me tell you an even more, much, much more historical truth that should rock your world this morning, and that is that God is with us. He came down about 2,000 years ago. He ascended up into heaven, and He sent the Spirit of truth. And if you're a believer, He dwells in you this morning. Amen? Amen. And there's something dirtier than a manger. Amen? Yeah, yeah, that's the Christmas miracle. That's the one we're going to talk about this morning. God with us. It makes us totally unique as Christians. You know, there's a lot of talk these days that Christianity and other religions are virtually the same, but it is absolutely not true. Christianity is completely and utterly unique, and it is because, on one part, the truth of God with us. If you asked a Mormon, did God come down? Is Jesus Christ God? He would say to you, no, Jesus Christ is not God. He's a created being. If you ask the Jehovah's Witness, has God come down to us? No, no, no. He's a created being. If you went back thousands of years and you talked to Mr. Buddha, And he would be a nice guy. I feel like he would be nice and kind and warm and gentle. And you said, Mr. Buddha, can God become a man? He would say, my son, you are still trapped in the veil of illusion. God cannot become a man. God is man and in man and God is earth and in earth and in all things. He's too near to come down. He's already among us. It is already amoeus. If you ask Mr. Muhammad in about the year 700 AD, he said, Mr. Muhammad, can God come down to man? I have a feeling he would be less kind than Buddha. And he would tear his clothes and cry, shirk or blasphemy. To attribute to God human attributes is the greatest sin in Islam. It is the sin of shirk or the sin of blasphemy. Depending on what country you were in, you might be hanged for it. But here, listen, if you were to ask a Jew about the time Jesus was born, can God come down to earth and be a man? Blasphemy! Remember what they crucified Jesus for? He makes himself equal with God. He said, before Abraham was, I am, and they picked up stones to kill him. There was no concept of God with us as a man. That concept did not exist in Judaism. It was not culturally known to the people of Israel, nor to Buddhists, nor to Muslims, nor to anyone on the face of the planet. That concept is Brand spanking new. Gabriel comes down and tells Mary, and of course, she wonders what sort of greeting this would be. That God would be born in a womb? And even the disciples didn't get it, my friends. Even the disciples, they're on the ship. They run down into the hole and they say, Jesus, Master, Master, do you want us to perish here in these waves? And what does he say? O ye of little faith. And he goes up to the top of the ship. And what do the disciples do? They marvel. What manner of man is this? That the winds and the seas obey him. So they don't get it. God with us. They don't quite get it yet. What sort of a man is he? Well, he's the sort of a man that created the seven seas, and he certainly could call him the little old Sea of Galilee, but that truth is not dropped down into their hearts yet. They haven't yet really chewed on the Christmas miracle of God with us. Even Mary and Joseph, when Jesus was 12 years old, Remember they lost him for a little while there? Jesus wasn't too concerned. He can handle it on his own. He's in the temple and Mary comes in frantic. She's lost her child for three days. Can you imagine? And she says to Jesus, we've been looking for you. How could you have done this to me and your father? And Jesus says, didn't you know? that I had to be in my father's house? And what house was that? That was the temple of God. Jews did not speak like that. I am in my father's house. And Mary was amazed. She treasured these things in her heart, but the Christmas miracle of God with us, there just was no category in her mind to process that this 12-year-old boy was God. Oh, and let me tell you something even more miraculous. Right after that, the Bible says, he submitted to them and went back home. That's God! God with us! That is not an everyday ordinary truth. That is a Christian truth. We hold it uniquely, and it is our power. It is a glorious gospel truth. And it was so perplexing to everyone, so confusing to everyone. Let me tell you why it's so confusing to some people. That a Jew would say he was God, and then a bunch of other Jews would follow him. That's a miracle, friends. That is a miracle. John, a Jew, said, the Word was God. Amen? And we beheld His glory. Peter, a Jew, said, My Lord and my God. Thomas, a Jew, bowed to him and said, My Lord and my God. Paul, a Jew, said, In him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Jesus Christ is not just a pie in the slice of God. He is God. He is the creator and the sustainer. He is God. If He came into this room, we would bow down because God had entered. And He is a man. That's so bizarre. It's so... unique It's so very special and unique let me tell you why there's two big reasons why this Christmas message is so profound and the two reasons are this us and God Yeah, that's why it's a miracle that us and God have that close of a relationship, that God would come down to us. That's why it's a miracle. Think about who the us are. In the Christmas times, who was the us? It was Mary and Joseph, right? And Bethlehem, and shepherds. Did you know that shepherds were the outcasts of society? They were bandits, they were robbers, they were the untouchables. They were the rural, lowly, illiterate, ignorant people. And yet, who does God come down to? He comes down to shepherds. And He comes into a city, Bethlehem. Bethlehem was podunk. It was a little town. It was a sleepy town. It was not Rome. It was not Jerusalem. It was Bethlehem. And then, not only that, he came to Mary, who in the eyes of everyone else was an unwed teenage mother with her husband Joseph, a blue-collar worker. That's who the us is. And my friends, that's probably most of us here. I'm from Bro Bridge, right? That's like Bethlehem. And the only thing lower than Brobridge is Ville Platt. So, yeah. So we Brobridgians, we Ville Plations, how can we believe that God is with us? How can we believe that? Listen, It's even worse than that because spiritually, we're Bethlehemites. Amen? Spiritually, we're unwed teenage mothers. Spiritually, we're outcast shepherds, bandits, and robbers. Can you say amen to that? Yeah, look, I know for a fact we could not get the president here. And I know we couldn't get a governor here either. And I doubt we could get a city councilman here, to be honest with you. And I doubt we could get the parish president here. And we're supposed to believe that God is here? You see why that's a miracle? Amen? You see, because a God, if He's going to come down to earth, He's going to come to Rome. He's going to come to Jerusalem. He's going to come to the halls of power. He's not going to come to the Brobridgians and the Vilplacians. He's not going to come to the Bethlehemites spiritually. He's going to come to the high and to the mighty. But is that what God did? No, it's not at all. That's the Christmas miracle. That is one of the reasons, one of the many reasons it is so very difficult to process for us. Because gods just don't do that. But our God does. Let me tell you the other reason why this is hard to believe and why it was hard to process for the Jews and for every other human on the planet. And why no other religion ever came up with something like this. Because not only is there the problem of us, but there's the problem of God. The Bible says it like this. The Bible says that he will in no way pardon the iniquity of a sinful person. You get that? He will in no way let the guilty go free. That's what the Old Testament says. Can God, can God, a just and holy judge, look at criminals and say, you know, I'll just let you go free. No big deal. Is that what God does? No, He's a just and holy judge. The Bible says that God cannot look upon the face of iniquity. The God who is with us was the one who cast Adam and Eve from the garden for eating the forbidden fruit. And He put an angel at its gate with fiery swords. He says, you come too close to me, you die. Our God is the one who on top of Mount Sinai said, Moses, you cannot see my face. No one can see my face and live. Amen? He said, don't touch this mountain. He said, even if a goat touches this mountain, it will be dead. Our God is the one who sent fire out of the Holy of Holies and consumed Nadab and Abihu. He opened up the cracks in the earth and swallowed up people whole. God with us. You can see why that's starting to become a problem. Our God is a consuming fire. He speaks in the lightning and the thunder. He speaks in earthquakes. And we're supposed to believe that he, the high and lifted up one wholly on his throne, who does as he pleases, has come down to us, spiritual Bethlehemites, nobodies in nowheresville. And the answer is what? Yes, that's the Christmas miracle. That's the Christmas miracle that that God came down to us. Now listen, let me tell you why else it's very difficult to believe. And I'm gonna give you an illustration here. If we live in a solar system, you gotta think about this, because some of you think, I don't like, I'm not so sure I like that grumpy God. I'm gonna show you, he's not grumpy, okay? It's just the way it is. Watch. We live in a solar system, amen? All right. That means that we live in a system that is surrounding and centers on a solar, on a sun. Let me ask you something. If by chance a meteorite were to come into our solar system and crash into one of those planets and alter its orbit, Eventually, not immediately, but eventually, our planet Earth would begin to collide with other planets, would it not? And then on top of that, it would begin to collide with the Sun. It wouldn't happen immediately, but when Earth starts to orbit its own way, instead of orbiting properly in harmony with the Sun, it's just a matter of time before it meets its annihilation. Just a matter of time before it is consumed by the center of the solar system, the Sun. And my friends, that is exactly what happened to us. A meteorite came from somewhere else, Satan. He came to us in the Garden of Eden, and he convinced us to change our orbit. No longer did Adam and Eve surround themselves and center themselves on the glory of God. Instead, they centered themselves and orbited around their own personal needs, their own personal comforts, and their own desires for divinity. Now, if every single one of us in this room is orbiting in our own little orbit of personal needs and personal comfort, what's going to happen? We're going to run into each other, and that's the history of humanity. And eventually, not immediately, we're going to run into the sun. It's not that he's grumpy, my friends. It's that he is the center of the universe. And we all think that we are the center of the universe. And that is what has created havoc in this world. And now on top of that, we are to believe that the sun, the center of the universe, the consuming fire has come down to earth into our atmosphere. and we're not all dead. Amen? We have God the consuming fire in us, circling our own orbits, doing our own thing, and we have come together and we're not dead. And the reason is because when the Son came down to earth, He did not come to consume us. He did not come for judgment. He came instead to let us crucify Him. Amen? And He took our place there on that particular cross. Now you say, some of you might be thinking, I know that some of you, this is your first Sunday, And I'm thinking, I don't think I like the fact that God is at the center of the universe. I think I would like to be at the center of the universe. Who thinks that? Amen? You all think that. Come on, be honest with yourself. You all want to be the center of the universe. That's what your wife's been telling you for all these years. And it's very true. It's very true. But God, listen, you sometimes, we all deep down begrudge the fact that God gets all the glory. We want to have a little bit of glory. And we might think he's a glory hog and a little bit of an egomaniac. But picture this. Who's been to the Grand Canyon? Anyone? Wow, good. The largest tourist attraction in the Southwest, I hear. You travel to the Grand Canyon. What do you do when you get to the Grand Canyon? You don't do anything. You stand there and you gawk. You gawk in awe. And you look out over its grandeur and you are filled with a sense of transcendency. When you stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon, it's like the world makes sense at that point. You feel like you are a part of something bigger. It is so breathtaking. No one stands there and thinks, what a glory hog. What? I want to be the number one tourist attraction in the Southwest. I want people to come and stand around me in awe. No one thinks that it's absurd. No one begrudges the glory that is to be given to the Grand Canyon. It's glorious. But my friends, Everyone begrudges the fact that the creator of the Grand Canyon gets the glory. And that's a huge problem. But my friends, if you would just take out your lawn chair and sit down and look at God and just worship Him and give Him the glory, it's not at your cost. It would lift you up with a sense of transcendency. You think the Grand Canyon produces all? Imagine what God who created the sun and the stars and the moon creates. Amen? You think of the beach, you travel to the beach and you're filled with a sense of tranquility. You don't begrudge the fact that everyone loves the beach and everyone worships it and wants to be there. You're not mad at the beach. You go there and you are warmed by it. Just imagine the tranquility you would feel in the presence of God if you could just let down your rebellion and stop circling your own needs and comforts and instead circle His glory. Amen? Amen. That God, the God who created the Grand Canyon, and the beach, and the mountaintops, has come into our solar system, into our atmosphere, and down here this morning, and we're not all dead. Instead, you have a choice. Will you receive Him and be filled with a real sense of transcendency, a real sense of purpose and meaning in life, that you are a part of something bigger, than yourself, the Christmas gospel. Amen? Think about that for a little while. But I know something even more miraculous than God with us, and that's that God came down into a manger. Now, Christmas is a time of toastiness and warmth and cuddliness, right? You get by the fire. Anyone make a fire last night? A few people? Yeah, that's Christmas. It's so cozy. It's so warm and toasty. But that is not what a manger is. Amen? No, I had to tell my kids last night what a manger was. I said, you know, it's like a dog food bowl for donkeys. It's a feeding trough. That's what a manger is. And my friends, I've been to three births, and you don't put them on your mantle. No, it's not a precious moment. I've been to a birth, and there is screaming, and snot flying, and spittle, and squeezing, and sweating, and it's not living room decor. And that's how God came. You understand that? That's how God came. He went down that dark tunnel that we've all passed. He feels our pain. And He cried. The God of the universe cried, I promise you, because there was mucus filling His mouth and it had to be swiped. And there was no moonbeam breaking through the rafters and lighting His face. He was in a barn, in a feeding trough. in Bethlehem, around a bunch of shepherds. That's how God came. That is a miracle. And I know an even dirtier place than a manger. And that's my own life. Amen? That's my life. And the gospel tells us that God didn't just come down to this earth. He wants to come down into your life as well. And I know something lower than Bethlehem. And that was my spiritual state before God met me. Can you agree with that? That's Christmas. That is a Christmas miracle. That God, as high and lifted up as he is, would come down to us. And there's so many truths there that we have to process, we have to think about. That's a story, all right? God is a character. We are a character. God does the moving into our world to save us. But the Christmas story is not like a lot of stories. The point of the Christmas story is not just to inform your head, it's to get you to move, amen? There is a point at which you must take on the mission yourself and must process these truths. You've gotta get the truth of God with us to drop down from your thick skull, that's dirtier than a manger, and down into your heart, amen? All right, I wanted to help you with this. I wanna do this this morning. I wanna show you how it's done. Are you lonely? God with us. You see how that works? He is the friend who sticks closer to you than a brother. You see how the Christmas message can change your very emotions? It can change your life. The gospel is invading of all your life. Do you feel betrayed? God with us. You see that? Who was betrayed beyond any of our beliefs and beyond our imaginations? Jesus Christ! Amen? Are you suffering? Many people suffer on Christmas and on holidays. Are you hurting? Are you suffering? God with us. Amen? You know, every religion on the planet gives answers for why they're suffering. There's only one that does more than give you a few answers, and that's Christianity. Not only does Christianity offer to you a few insights on why there's suffering in this world, but Christianity worships the God who came down into the suffering. And He healed the sick. He made the lame to walk and the blind to see. And we may not know all the answers to why there's suffering in the world, but one thing we do know is that Jesus hates it way more than we do. Amen? And that He was willing to come down into this world and to work towards defeating it through His death and resurrection. Amen? That's what Christianity, that's what God with us offers you this morning in your suffering and in your hurt. You know they say, a good counselor is very hard to find. It's true. This is what you need for a good counselor. You need someone who can identify with you, right? And you need someone who is outside of your domain and your world, someone who's beat the problem that you have. Amen? You see, that's why ex-drug addicts make the best addiction counselors, because they can identify, but they've also had victory over it. You see, a drug addict, a fellow drug addict could identify with you just very well. They understand what you're going through, but they don't have the power to help you. But someone who's never even, you know, had any problems with drugs whatsoever, they might be able to tell you what to do and help you in some sense, but they can't identify with you. You get that? But Christmas says, God with us. God not only has defeated all of our problems, he is not only the solution to all of our problems, but he can also identify with each and every one of your problems. He went through that same birth canal that every one of us did, amen? And into this cruel, cruel world, he can be your counselor. That's the truth of God with us. Are you bored with your Christianity? Are you spiritually asleep? The Bible calls that lukewarm, amen? Are you bored with it? Listen, God with us. What more can awaken you to the powers of the gospel than the God who split the seas, who caused other rivers to turn to blood, who struck down Ananias and Sapphira, is living here. And that should wake you up. That should give you a sense of urgency and a sense of mission. That's the Christmas revival that we all need. That's the answer to being bored with your Christianity. God with us. You know, you ought to consider this, though, if you're bored. When Jesus Christ came into this world, he was like a cue ball that hit all the other ones. When Jesus Christ walked into a room, demons ran. Demons said, have you come to torment us before the time? They would cower in the corners. The Pharisees would pick up rocks to throw at him. Others would bow and put their face in the dirt. But no one was bored. And it very well may be that your boredom is because you haven't met him yet. You need to meet the God who is Emmanuel, God with us. You need him to be with you, and that would wake you up, guaranteed, amen? Well, listen, are you religious this morning? God with us. Let's use a little bit of common sense here. If he only wanted to teach us a few things, he could have sent a teacher. If He only wanted to heal us, He could have sent a healer. But He didn't just send a teacher and a healer, He came down Himself. And that means He wanted to do more than teach you how to ascend up to heaven yourself through religious ritual. He wanted to do more than show you how to live. He had to actually do something Himself that only He could do. Amen? And what was that? You need to know, if you are new to Christianity, here is the crux of our belief. That God came down to earth because we couldn't go up on our own. Amen? He came down to this earth and He fulfilled the law of God. He fulfilled the law of a holy God. He fulfilled all righteousness. He lived a perfect life and then he died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. And the reason why he came down to do it is because you can't live that life and you can't die. And if you do die, you'll go to hell and eternity without God. And so why did God come down? It was more just to teach you a few little things and show you a few rituals to perform. He came down to do something for you. And so common sense tells us when we hear God with us, we need to just stand there and receive what he did first. Amen? We need to just be quiet. We need to shut up. We need to stop trying to climb up the ladder of our religious rituals and just receive what the God of the universe has come down to do. And that's called the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what you need to do first this morning. That's just common sense when we think of God with us. Amen. If he came, that meant there was something he needed to do that you can't do. So here's some other common sense for you. Quit trying to do it. quit trying to work for the favor of God when He offers to you a gift. Amen? Amen. That is God with us. Are you religious? Are you bored? Are you tired? All of these things. Let's go ahead and stand. Let's all stand. I want to say before we close, I hope that the phrase Merry Christmas means something new to you. Christmas means Christ sent. That's what it means. I hope that Christmas, that Emmanuel, God with us, rings true to you this morning. I'm going to pray. I'm going to ask that someone could play the piano for me. And while I'm praying, if Pastor Joe, if you could come up here, and Pastor Sam, if you could come up here. While I'm praying, if you want to ask questions about Christianity, if you want to ask questions about the gospel of Jesus Christ, perhaps what I said about being bored in your Christianity, perhaps you'd like to talk more about that. Perhaps you'd like to talk about how you can't earn your salvation, and it's a little bit of common sense that God came down to do it for you. If you want to talk about those things, we have pastors here to talk about. If you need someone to pray with you because you are suffering, Well, let me tell you, Christians can identify with suffering because they have the identifying Lord in their hearts. Amen? Amen. So you might need someone to talk to, but while I pray, you can come talk to these men if you would like. Let's pray. Father God, we have asked you this morning to wield the sword of your word. We've asked you to rejuvenate our hearts. with the truth of God with us. Lord, we admit to you that we have grown cold and apathetic over the Christmas message, that we no longer feel the room shaking and the windows rattling. We've grown accustomed to it. We've grown cold and lukewarm and frankly bored with it, Lord God, but I pray that the Christmas message would bring revival into our hearts and renew us again. I ask Lord God that you might be a comforting God this morning for all those for whom Christmas is a tough time. I pray that you'd show them how wonderful a counselor you are. Lord God, I pray for the religious this morning. There might be people here, Lord God, who came here this very morning thinking that they were earning points with you. Help them, Lord, to see that they just need to stand at the edge of your greatness and be filled with wonder and awe and receive what you came down here to do. It's good news, Lord, not good advice, not good tips and strategies for living. It's good news. Help them to just read the news and rejoice in it and that you have accomplished it. Lord God, I pray that every Christian here would see the mission of the manger. that they would not long for the white picket fence and the comfortable Christianity, but that they would follow in your footsteps, the footsteps of a sacrificial giving ministry to those who are lowly, to those who are hurting. I pray that every Christian here would see that the manger is a mission, and that if they are bored with their Christianity, that that perhaps is the lacking aspect, that they need to receive the call And get to work, Lord God, following in your footsteps, reaching out to the Bethlehemites all around them. I pray for these things for all of these people here this morning. I ask in Jesus Christ's name, amen.