Rick Warren - Behold! The Best News Ever (12/25/2024)
This Christmas Eve sermon invites everyone to "behold" the true meaning of Christmas by focusing on Jesus, using the ancient word "behold" (meaning to gaze with awe) to urge deeper attention amid modern distractions. Tracing God's plan through Scripture—Jesus coming to earth, living perfectly, dying for sins, rising from death, and promising to return—the pastor emphasizes that Christmas reveals God's love for all people, offering forgiveness, purpose, and eternity to anyone who trusts Him. It's a powerful call to move beyond glancing at Jesus and truly behold Him as Savior this Christmas.
Behold the True Meaning of Christmas
Merry Christmas, everybody. In fact, Merry Christmas to all of you here at Lake Forest, and to all of our Saddleback campuses that are meeting right now, watching right now, literally all around the world—Merry Christmas to all of you. I love you guys so much. I want you to know that this past year, I have prayed for you more this past year than I have in all the other 42 years—any of those years. It was a pretty difficult year—everybody agree with that? But you made it.
And so what I want you to do is I want you to turn to a stranger next to you and say, “Congratulations, you made it.” Okay, congratulations—you made it. You made it through 2021. All right—on our 42nd Christmas together as a church family. I want to do something I've never done before. I want to begin Christmas by playing a video clip of an NBA basketball game. Now I'm going to explain after I show it to you why I'm showing it to you. But last week, in the final four seconds of a game that really meant nothing—it was between two losing teams—one team hit a 30-foot basket to tie the game. But with one second left, the other team shot a 60-foot, 61-foot basket to win the game. Watch this—then I'll explain to you why.
The play. Are they gonna get there? Gotta follow, and they do.
Okay, that ties the game—there's one second left. Watch this.
At the time out. Garrett Temple reached for him, didn't get him, and give Shay Gilders Alexander credit as Devonte' sends it. Gets in, gets in. The game winner. Devonte' Graham.
Okay, all right. Now why did I show you that clip? Because the ESPN news title caught my attention—because it used the word nobody ever uses anymore. Here was the headline from that clip: “Behold the craziest finish to an NBA game ever. A 61-foot shot at the buzzer for a win beats a 30-footer.” And it says this game really didn't mean anything to anybody, and yet the game produced the most magical 4.5 seconds you'll ever see on a basketball court—behold it.
All right, now “behold” is a word nobody uses anymore. It's an old English word. I doubt you've ever used the word behold in your entire life. I doubt you've ever come out of a Taco Bell and said, “Behold, I ate a burrito.” And behold, I burped. But behold is an important word in the Bible. That word behold is used 1275 times in the King James translation of the Bible.
Inside your program there is an outline—I want you to pull it out. These are teaching notes for tonight—I want you to pull this out. Every verse we're going to look at is on this little piece of paper. So pull it out. And notice at the top I give a definition. Behold—what does the word behold mean? Well to behold something means to hold in focus for an extended period of time. You don't just glance at it—you really look at something for an extended period of time. To behold means to gaze at something with awe and appreciation.
When I was in college and I saw this cute young chick walking down—who would be my future wife—toward me, I beheld Kay Lewis. Okay, I didn't just gaze or glance at her—I gazed at her; I beheld with awe and appreciation. To behold means pay attention. It means don't miss this. It means think about it seriously—give it your utmost attention.
Now would you agree that today in our ADD world—our attention deficit disorder culture—we all have a shorter attention span than we used to have? Everybody agree with that? Things catch our attention but we lose attention very fast. Commercials used to be 30 seconds long—now you can get three, four, five or 10 commercials in a 30-second slot because it's hard to stay focused.
The truth is we don't take the time to behold anything—we glimpse at things, we glance at things, but we don't gaze at things. Because beholding takes too much time. We can't sit still long enough—we have ADD; we can't sit still long enough. When was the last time you went out in nature, sat down for 30 minutes to behold the beauty of nature? I doubt you've ever done that—just be quiet, never said a word for 30 minutes.
When was the last time you sat down in silence for 20-30 minutes to behold the meaning of your life? Maybe never. You see we don't behold how things are changing all around us and how you are changing—you're not the same you were a year ago or two years ago.
Now there's a difference between glimpsing at something and glancing at something and gazing at something or beholding. You see at Christmas time most people will give God a glimpse—they'll tip the hat to Jesus. They'll glance—they'll take a little short look at Jesus. And so you're in the mall and you're doing your Christmas shopping and you start humming “O come let us adore Him” because it's playing on the mall speakers. Or you look at the manger scene—the nativity scene of baby Jesus in the manger—and you give a glimpse; you give a glance to Jesus.
But most people don't take time to really behold the real gift of Christmas because we're too busy with the Christmas rush. What I want you to do—and I'm asking you to do; what I'm begging you to do—is for the next few minutes I want you to sit still—just for a few minutes—sit still long enough to behold the best news you're ever going to hear. I guarantee it.
God's Great Plan Summarized
So what is this best news ever? What is the good news that God wants you to behold this Christmas? If you have never ever been to a church service—you picked a good one to come to, friend. Because tonight I'm going to summarize the entire Bible in four sentences—in four statements, okay? Pull out your teaching notes inside your program. I'm going to summarize—I'm going to give you cliff notes on the Bible. This is 66 books together in the Bible written over thousands of years—and I'm going to give you cliff notes on the Bible. This is Bible 101—why 2.5 billion Christians follow Jesus and why the whole world celebrates Christmas. The world shuts down at Christmas time. Even people who don't believe in Christ celebrate Christmas.
Now it starts like this: You're not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you but God planned you—you're not an accident. God made you to love you. God wanted a family—the whole reason the universe exists. The Bible tells us God wanted a family. So if God had not wanted to love you He wouldn't have created you—you wouldn't be taking your next breath. Every breath you take is a gift from God—every good thing in your life is a gift from God because of God's love.
Now your life on this earth—the 60, 70, 80, maybe 90 at the most 100 years—is really quite short compared to eternity. This life is preparation for the next—this life is preparation for eternity. God has long-range plans for you—far longer than your life on this planet. This is the preparation stage—and He wants you to live with Him forever in heaven. But you gotta have a relationship with Him.
So you say how? How do I get one of those? How do I have a relationship with God? And I'm not talking about religion—you may be Baptist or Buddhist or Methodist or Mormon or Muslim or no religion at all. How can I have a friendship with God? We're talking about a relationship. Well that's the first part of the good news—the best news ever—and the reason for Christmas—is that God took the initiative so you could get to know Him because He wants you to know Him.
Now almost every Bible verse we're going to look at tonight on your outline has the word behold in it. And so every time we read it—if you see that word—circle the word behold because at the end of tonight I'm going to give you a little Christmas homework to do after you've done that—all right?
Now here's the first thing God wants you to think about at Christmas. Number one—behold God came to earth. That's a big deal. God came to earth—He became a human—why? So we could see—write this down—what He's really like. God came to earth at Christmas in the form of a human being so we could see what He's really like. If God wanted to communicate to birds He would have become a bird. If He wanted to communicate to horses He would have become a horse. He wanted to communicate to human beings—so He became one of us.
Now in the Bible Jesus is called many different things. One of the things Jesus is called is the Word of God. And He's called the Word of God because God sent Him to communicate with us. Look at this verse there on your outline—John 1: “In the beginning was the Word.” That's talking about Jesus—Jesus has existed from the beginning of time—before even the universe. “The Word was with God and the Word was God.” This is what's called the Trinity. “Everything was created by Him. Nothing has been made without Him. He is the source of all life and His life gives light to everyone.” Everyone—everyone of us. “The Word became a human and lived among us and we beheld”—there's that word behold—“we beheld His glory—the glory of the Father's only Son—and we saw His full grace and truth.”
Now there's several things that verse packed a lot of truth in it. But I want you to notice several things. First—Jesus because He is God has existed from the beginning of time—He has never not existed because He is God. A lot of people think Jesus was created at Christmas. No—He's always existed. He didn't start at Christmas—He existed before anything else was made. In fact the Bible tells us Christ—Jesus—made the universe. Jesus made you—He made me—He made everything that exists—He is the source of all life.
Now notice in there it says in Jesus we see the full grace and truth of God—circle that word full. What does that mean? Well you can see a lot about God without ever going to the Bible. You can know a lot about God without ever going to church—all you have to do is go out and look at nature. Creation teaches us a lot about our Creator.
By looking at the creation we know God likes beauty—it's real obvious—ever seen a sunset, sunrise? God likes beauty. We know God likes variety—look at the world, look at the earth, look at all the people in the world. God likes variety—diversity—it was His idea to make us all different. God is powerful—look at thunder, lightning, look at ocean waves, the currents. God is powerful. God is organized—everything in the universe is on a system—there's the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom—ecology says we're all interrelated. God is organized.
There are a lot of things we know about God without even going to the Bible. But there's some things you'd never know about God if it weren't for Jesus. If Jesus hadn't come to earth you wouldn't know God loves you—nothing would tell you that. You wouldn't know that God forgives you—you wouldn't know that God has a purpose and plan for your life—you wouldn't know anything about heaven—you wouldn't know anything about the afterlife without Jesus. Because He came—without Him you wouldn't know any of that.
Now we can learn a lot from other teachers—even in other religions—there're glimpses of God—glimpses—so we go yeah that's true—what that guy said is true—that's true. But to fully understand God—if you want to know what God is like—take a long look at Jesus. Other teachers can give you a glimpse but He gives the full thing about God's grace. Nobody else teaches God's grace the way Jesus does—God's forgiveness.
Now for thousands of years God told us that He was going to be coming to earth one day—He predicted over and over through a lot of different wise and holy men. Let me just show you one example—up here on the screen in Isaiah 7—this was like 600 years before Jesus. He said, “God will give you this sign—behold”—there's that word—pay attention—“A virgin shall conceive and bear a son and will call his name Immanuel.”
What does Immanuel mean? Immanuel means God is with us. God put on a human body in Jesus—this is called in fancy terms the incarnation—God became flesh.
The First Christmas Announcement
Now here's how it was announced at the very first Christmas. Look there in your outline—Luke 2. That first Christmas night it says, “That night there were shepherds watching over their flocks in the fields outside of Bethlehem. Suddenly”—and by the way Bethlehem is the word for house of bread—Beth in Hebrew means house—lechem is the word for bread in Hebrew—Bethlehem house of bread is where the bread of life was born—“Suddenly it says an angel appeared with the radiance of God's glory surrounding them saying—surrounding them they were terrified.”
I mean the guys are sitting by probably a campfire—a bunch of shepherds—smelly shepherds—watching their sheep—taking it easy—telling jokes—all of a sudden an angel shows up and they're terrified. “But the angel reassured them saying, ‘Don't be afraid. Behold I bring you good news of great joy which is for’”—a very few people? Is that what it says? Which is for what? You know what—I looked up that word in the Bible in the original Greek—you know what everyone means? Everybody. Doesn't matter what your religious background is—doesn't matter what your race is—doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, young or old, what country you come from—Christmas is for everybody.
“I bring you good news of great joy which is for everybody. Today in the town of David”—that's Bethlehem where King David had been born—“your Savior has been born.” Now circle that word Savior—“Your Savior has been born. He is Christ the Lord. And you'll find Him—find the babe lying in a manger.”
Now a couple things—first what's a manger? Look up here on the screen. This is a manger. A manger is just a feed trough for cattle—for horses—for donkeys—you put the hay up high so they could eat it. It was filled with animal slobber—is not exactly a sanitary place to put a baby. It's the most humble—none of you were born in as humble a circumstance as Jesus was born in—you can't get more humble than being laid in a feed trough of an animal.
Now this would be a sign to the shepherds because when they go into Bethlehem there might have been several babies born that night—but there was only one lying in a manger—and that was Jesus. But it says a Savior has been born. You need a Savior. You may not realize it but you need a Savior. Believe me—if you didn't need a Savior God wouldn't have wasted the time to send one.
Now I'm not talking about saving you simply from sin—I'm not talking just about saving you out of hell—I'm talking about saving you from yourself. I'm talking about saving you from your bad habits that you can't seem to stop. And those persistent thoughts of depression that you can't get rid of. And those worries that kind of get a grip on you. There are thousands of things that you need to be saved from. You're not God—you can't even solve your own problems much less problems of the world.
So you need a Savior. I need a Savior. If we didn't need one He wouldn't have wasted time to come at Christmas. But He came to be a Savior—and we'll talk a little bit more about what that means.
Now look up here on the screen. Here was the response: “Suddenly”—well there was one angel talking to the shepherds—“Suddenly the angel was joined by a huge choir of angels lighting up the sky.” I mean what a light show that was—“praising God and singing ‘Glory to God in the highest and let there be peace and God's favor on earth.’”
Now let me ask you an opinion—when that happened let's say you're a shepherd out there. Do you think the shepherds when all that lit up the sky—do you think they glanced or glimpsed or gazed at it? Do you think they went ah angels? When they're looking back at the s'mores they're making over the campfire? No—believe me it lit up the sky—they beheld it. It was a wonder to behold. They didn't dare look away. They were focused because this was unusual. And they had to ask themselves—what does all this mean?
All right now we come to the second part of God's plan for history and God's plan for you. First part—God comes to earth—He comes in a human form Jesus Christ so we could know what God's like. Number two—He lives a perfect life. So He could die for all of our imperfections. He lives a sinless life so He could die for all of our sins. It's called redemption and grace. It's a new concept. So you don't have to pay for all the bad stuff you've done or I have done.
Here's the third part of the plan: Behold Jesus defeated death. He defeated death by raising Himself back to life so we can live forever with Him. We don't have to be afraid of death anymore. Jesus changed our understanding of death by defeating it.
Now listen you guys—if Jesus had not come back to life on Easter Sunday nobody in the world would be celebrating Christmas tonight. Why? Because Jesus would have been a liar—a fake—a phony—and a con man. And He would have conned 2.5 billion people on the planet. Because He said here's how I'm going to prove that I am who I say I am—I am God. Now a lot of people in history have claimed to be God—I could claim to be God. You could claim to be God. But only Jesus proved it.
He said I'm going to let them kill me—they'll put me in the grave for three days and three days later I'll raise myself back to life. That's called a resurrection—that's not a resuscitation—we have resuscitations all the time—people die for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes or whatever and then they come back to life—that's not a resurrection—that's a resuscitation. Resurrection means you've been buried for three days. Nobody does that—only Jesus proved it.
And it was such a significant event—it's the most important event in history—it split our entire calendar into AD and BC. Every other event in history is dated in relationship to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Your own birthday—your day, month, year—what is that all about? It's your day, month, year in relationship to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every other event in history—before BC or AD in the year of our Lord—is related because of the resurrection. It split history—that's why it's the most important event in history—even more important than Christmas. Because Christmas wouldn't matter if that didn't happen.
Now notice how it happened—on that first Easter morning there in your outline Matthew 28 says this: “And behold”—there's that word—“there was a great earthquake and an angel came and rolled back the large stone in front of the tomb door and sat on it.” This is kind of a little sarcasm here—he just sits on it.
Now what's this idea? In those days they didn't bury people all the time in the ground but they would often bury them in caves or in caverns—and there was a lot of limestone in the Middle East—they dig out a family crypt and not one person was buried in it but lots of people. And every time somebody in a family died they roll back the stone and put the new person in—then roll it back—and generations of family members would be buried in the same tomb.
Now this particular tomb is owned by a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea—brand new tomb—he bought it—nobody had been buried in it yet. And it had this big stone. Now the opponents of Jesus said we've heard that He claims He's going to come back to life—we don't want anybody stealing the body. So they said here's what we want you to do—we want you to seal it with the Roman seal and put guards around Jesus' tomb. Jesus—the only tomb that's ever had to be guarded to keep the guy from coming back out.
Okay but they did that. Now on Easter morning an angel comes—breaks the seal—and here's what it says. It says he sat in front of the tomb on the stone and his appearance was as bright as lightning. And the tomb guards were so frightened that they shook with paralyzing fear.
But the angel said to the women—there were some followers of Jesus who had come back on Sunday to address and anoint His body with spices like the burial preparation—and the angel says to the women “Don't be afraid. I know you're looking for Jesus who was crucified. But He's not here. For He has risen just as He promised.” And then he said come on in and look at this—come on into the grave tomb—“Behold the place where they had laid His body. Now go tell His disciples that Jesus has risen from the dead and behold He'll meet you in Galilee. Lo I've told you.”
Now if you want to circle “lo and behold”—that's the first mention of lo and behold in the Bible. Lo and behold—there it is all right. “Lo I've told you.” So the women hurried away afraid—okay they're afraid—yet filled with joy and they ran to tell His disciples what the angel had told them.
“But”—here's the clincher—“on the way behold Jesus met the women.” Okay yeah—He's out walking around—and He says “Greetings.” I guess that's the typical reaction for a risen Savior—greetings—how's it going? “Amazed they ran to Him—embraced His feet and worshiped Him.” Okay—worshiped Him. “Then Jesus said to them ‘Don't be afraid.’” Second time in the Easter story—don't be afraid. “‘Don't be afraid. Go tell my brothers I'm going to meet them in Galilee.’”
Now you probably know this but Jesus didn't immediately return to heaven after He came back to life. Instead He spent the next 40 days—40 more days—walking around the streets of Jerusalem—meeting with people—eating with people—having dinner with people—talking with people. One time He preached a sermon to 500 people. This is why the faith spread so fast—why it went from 12 people to the dominant faith of the Roman Empire in a couple hundred years. Because there were tons of eyewitnesses who watched Jesus publicly be crucified to death and then later meet with Him after the resurrection for the next 40 days.
Can you imagine being one of the soldiers who put Christ to death and you're walking down the street one day in Jerusalem—all of a sudden He's there—He's back. That would be weird to see the guy that you know you just killed.
So Jesus didn't just immediately go back to heaven—lots of people saw Him and talked to Him. And one time He did a cookout for breakfast out by the Sea of Galilee for a bunch of people. After 40 days of giving people proof—everybody—then hundreds of thousands of people came to Christ almost instantly.
Jesus gave these last instructions before He goes back to heaven. Next verse: “Then Jesus told them”—okay now—“‘Go to all people everywhere and make them my disciples. Teach them to do everything I've shown you.’” Jesus never asked us to do something He hadn't already modeled. “‘And behold’”—there's another behold—“‘I am with you always to the end of the age.’”
That's a good behold—this is a comforting fact to behold and think about—that no matter what happens in 2022 He says behold I am with you always. Did you know that God is always with you—that Jesus is always with you? Say well I don't always feel Him—Jesus is not a feeling—feelings come and go—whether you feel Him or not it's irrelevant—He's always with you. You are never lonely by yourself when you realize God says I am with you all the time. Jesus is always watching you—He's always waiting with you—He's always with you. And that's a comforting thing to know—that I don't know what the future holds but I know who holds the future. And I know that no matter what I go through this next year I'm not going through it alone. And I can turn to God in any moment.
Now in Acts 1 it says this: “When Jesus had finished speaking these things they beheld Him being taken up into the sky until they could no longer see Him past the clouds.” This is called the ascension—He's going back up to heaven. It says “As they continued to gaze at the sky two men dressed in white appeared”—likely angels. “One said ‘Why are you still staring at the sky? This same Jesus that you just saw taken from you up into heaven will return one day in the same way that you saw Him leave.’” In the same way that you saw Him leave.
God's Plan Isn't Finished Yet
Now this leads us to the fourth part of God's story. Okay—and here's number four—here's the fourth thing you need to think about this Christmas. Behold God's plan for the universe and for you isn't finished yet. It's not done. Jesus will return to complete God's plan and take us to heaven.
Now if He comes in our lifetime that'll happen that way—if He comes after we've already died and we're already in heaven it'll be for whoever those who are there. But Jesus said I am going to come back in the same way. On the night before Jesus was crucified He got all of His followers together. And He wanted to say some words of comfort knowing that they were going to watch Him be tortured and crucified.
And He said this in John 14: “‘Do not let your heart be troubled. You believe in God—believe also in Me. In my Father's house in heaven are many mansions—if it were not so I would have told you. And I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am you may be also.’ Thomas said to Jesus ‘Lord we don't know where you're going and we don't know the way.’ And Jesus said ‘I am the way—I am the truth and I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
I'm betting my life that Jesus Christ is not a liar. What are you betting your life on? Well I just feel—feelings are highly irrational—feelings are highly unreliable. You better have more than just a feeling for the rejection of your Savior. Jesus said “I am the way—no one comes to the Father except through me.”
And He said if I go I'll come back. Did He go? Yeah He went. He's coming back one day. How's that going to happen? Well John—Revelation 1:7 says this: “Behold He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him and all the tribes of the earth shall gaze upon Him.” People go how's the world going to end? I'll tell you how it's going to end—just like that—that's the end of history right there. We already know—I've read the last chapter of the book—I know how it's going to end.
Now John was one of the last of the original 12 disciples who followed Jesus Christ—he was the last one to die. He died in old age—he was put on a prison island—imprisoned on an island called the island of Patmos in the Mediterranean Ocean by the Roman Empire—and he died as an old man. But before he died—before he died—he got a glimpse of heaven. And in Revelation chapter 21 God gave John a glimpse of what heaven is going to be like.
Revelation 21—see that verse: “Behold God's home is now with His people.” We're going to be with God forever in heaven. “Behold God's home is now with His people. He'll live with them forever and they will be His family. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” See there's no sorrow—no sadness—no suffering—no sickness—no sin in heaven. “There will be no more death. There will be no more grief or crying. There will be no more pain—for the old order of things will pass away. And God will say ‘Behold I'm making everything new.’”
And all the things that are broken in this planet—broken in the economy—broken in the weather—broken in relationships—broken in marriages—broken in your bodies—everything on this earth is broken because of sin—but He says I'm going to make it all new in heaven. No more sadness—sorrow—suffering—sin—sickness. No more grief—no more trials—no more troubles—no more health problems.
You won't be in heaven five seconds when you're going to realize—you know what? I gave too much of my focus on earth to things that didn't matter—to things that didn't last—to things that weren't going to matter for 10 years much less for eternity. What was I thinking?
This Christmas in my challenge to you—behold the true message. This Christmas I want you to get your focus off yourself. Get your focus off your problems—get your focus off your worries. And behold how much God loves you that He wants you to trust Him—His Son Jesus Christ.
It is genuinely acknowledged that one of the greatest minds of the 20th century was Dr. C.S. Lewis—professor at Oxford—wrote dozens of books—an intellectual giant—brilliant intellect. C.S. Lewis once said “The only thing Jesus cannot be is moderately important.” Now I want you to think about that for a minute. The only thing Jesus cannot be is moderately important.
Because if He wasn't telling the truth—if He said I'm God—if He's not God come in human form—if He didn't live a perfect life—if He didn't die for your sins you're going to have to die for them. If He didn't rise from the dead you know nothing about heaven and the afterlife—and it's all—in fact your life doesn't matter—there's no point to your life—there's no purpose to your life—it's all false. If that isn't true He's a fake—a phony—a con man—a fraud—and Christmas is the biggest hoax in history. And the world is celebrating with all of our Christmas traditions a giant hoax—it's all a lie.
People say well you know I think maybe Jesus was a good man. He couldn't be. He either has to be God or He's a fraud—one or the other. No good man will go around saying I'm God—I'm the only way to heaven—I'm the way to have all your sins forgiven. I could say I'm a good teacher—some of you would go yeah I've heard Rick for decades—he's a good teacher.
But if I stood up here and said by the way I'm the only way your sins will be forgiven—I'm the only way you're getting to heaven—and I am God in human form—now you gotta make a decision. I'm either a nut case or a total fraud—I'm no longer a good teacher. A good teacher would never claim that. Jesus could not possibly be just a good teacher. He's either a total fraud or He's who He claimed to be. There's no logical rational option beside that.
And I told you earlier—I'm betting my life that Jesus was telling the truth. What are you betting your life on? And I told you feelings are highly unreliable.
Now I want to end with one more behold—I told you there're 1275 of them—we just looked at a dozen. But in the last book of the Bible—Revelation 3—Jesus says this—it's here on the screen: “Behold I'm standing at the door”—at your door—the door of your life—and I'm knocking. I'm knocking. “And if you hear my voice and you open the door I'll come in and we'll fellowship.” You can begin a friendship with God tonight.
I'm not talking about religion folks—I'm talking about a relationship to God. You were not made for religion—Jesus didn't die for religion—Jesus died because He made you—He loves you—He wants you in heaven with Him—He came to be your Savior—and there's no other way you're getting saved. And if you didn't need a Savior Christmas wouldn't have happened.
“For unto you is born a Savior—He is Christ the Lord.” Either like Pilate said—behold the man—either accept Him or you reject Him—you behold Him or you betray Him—you trust Him or you crucify Him. Those are the options this Christmas.
I may ask you—what are you giving Jesus for Christmas? It's His birthday. You're buying gifts for everybody else—what are you getting for the birthday boy? Can you imagine having a birthday—buying gifts for everybody else but not the birthday boy or child? It's His birthday—what gift have you given Jesus?
You say well He's God. Yep—what do you give God? What do you give the God who has everything? He doesn't have your life unless you give it to Him. He doesn't have your trust unless you give it to Him. He doesn't have your love, allegiance, and loyalty unless you give—He doesn't have the honor He deserves—He gives you that option.
What are you going to give Jesus for His birthday? Stop celebrating Christmas if you're not going to give Him your gift—the gift that He wants from you. He wants you to trust Him—He wants you to love Him. He has never not loved you. And 1000 years before you were born He knew that on Christmas Eve 2021 you'd sit in a cold Saddleback Church. And we'd have the coldest day of our year with the most rain. So He could say this to you—you matter to me. I love you. I have known every moment of your life—I made you—and I want a relationship with you. And that's why I went through all this that we just talked about. So you could be mine and be a part of my family.
Let's bow our heads for prayer. I'm going to pray a simple prayer of trust. Maybe you've never opened your life to God—to Christ. Just follow me in this simple prayer—it doesn't matter—words don't really matter—what matters is a humble attitude. But you might just say dear God—and you say that—God knows what you're thinking—and you're not to say it aloud.
Dear God, thank you that you came to Earth and became a human being so we could know what you're like—so we could see your full grace and your full truth—not just get a glimpse of you but know what you're really like. And thank you Jesus Christ that you lived a perfect life so you could die for my imperfections. You lived a sinless life so you could die for all the stuff I've done wrong—all my sins. I find no fault in you. And thank you Jesus that you rose back from life—you raised yourself from death—to defeat death—to show us that there's life after death—to give us the promise that we can live forever with you. Thank you for that. And God I know your plan is not finished yet. Jesus just as you said you'd come one day and you did—you said you're coming back one day and you will. And whether it's in my lifetime or I die and I've trusted you and have gone to heaven and you come in the future sometime—you're going to keep your word. But today I believe that you're standing at the door of my life and you're knocking and I'm saying okay God—as best as I know how—I want to know you. I want to know you—I open my life to you. And as much as I know I ask you to come inside of me—fill me with your love. Fill me with your peace—fill me with your presence. I don't want you to be moderately important in my life anymore God—I want you to be the most important thing in my life because you made me and you have a purpose and plan for my life. So as humbly as I can say this—Jesus Christ—I ask you to be my Savior. I'm saying yes. I behold and I believe. And I pray this in your name. Amen.